All is Fair in Love and War
by Love in Equestria
Summary: The Skyrim Civil War, as told through two opposing squads. A dynamic story of adventure, humor and romance.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: First Impressions

The orc walked into the camp, and took in the sights. 'Huh, so this is an Imperial camp...' Piggnamub thought. 'Not too impressive.'

And indeed it wasn't. The makeshift camp situated on the west bank of the Darkwater River wasn't a sight to behold. It was made up of a few barrack tents, a small forge, and a miniscule mess hall that in actuality was just another tent.

'Ah well. might as well meet the team...'

*BOOM* A loud explosion sounded behind him as he passed the forge, making Piggnamub jump.  
"Ahh! Gods, are we under attack already?" he shouted in surprise.  
Laughter arose behind him, and he heard a voice. Behind him, there was a hooded man sitting on the forge, laughing at him.

"Ah, no. But, consider that your initiation." the man said, jumping down with grace. The man had a weak look about him, but he seemed to be graceful at least. The man rushed over to him, and Piggnamub noticed something odd about him; He had very pointed ears.

"The names Xander, but just call me X! Everyone does." he said, pumping Grognamub's arm furiously, with surprising strength. The small man had a wild look about him, but not crazy... Just, odd. Maybe it was those weird, electric blue eyes. Or those weird ears... "What's yours, pal?"

"Uhhh... Piggnamub..." Piggnamub answered slowly, taken off guard by the sudden assault.

"Piggn... Piggna... I'll call you Pigg! Fine by you?"

"Uhhh... Sure." he answered, obviously shaken.

"You're the new recruit, right?"

"Uhhh..."

"Great! I'll introduce you to the others! Follow me!" X said, dragging the shocked Pigg behind him.

It must have looked quite comical to an onlooker, to see this miniscule man with almost no muscle to his body pulling this gigantic, muscular orc behind him, dragging him with one arm. But, to the soldiers there, the only thoughts were, "Looks like X found the new guy."

On the other side of Skyrim, by Lake Ilinalta, Odmi walked into his camp. 'I'm already regretting this... I should have stayed in Riften...' the red haired nord thought to himself. The man wasn't that strong, and he wasn't that brave. But, he needed the Septims...

Just then, he heard the most beautiful voice behind him, like that of an angel. He felt the lightest of touches on his shoulder, and felt shivers run up his spine.

"Hey."

He whipped around, and was face to face with the most angelic creature he'd ever laid eyes on. She had long, straight brown hair, situated on a small, thin frame, which was covered in fur armor. Her smile was wide, but not abnormally so. But, the best thing about her was her eyes, those big, beautiful, rose colored eyes, eyes that showed compassion, and love, and

"Hey! You awake?" the angel woman sais, losing her smile slightly.

'Oh, right. She's talking... Say something,'

"Idiot!" Odmi blurted out, then instantly covered his mouth.

"...Excuse me?"

'By the nine, Odmi, think of something!'

"Uhhh... Sorry?"

'Damn, nice comeback, sir smooth.'

"I mean, sorry, I was just thinking out loud..."

"Uhhh... Okay then... Ummm... I'm assuming you're the new recruit?" the goddess said to him, smile slowly returning.

"Uhhh... Yeah."

"...Your name?"

"Oh, uh... Odmi! Yeah, that's it!"

"Hehe... My name's Lillith, but you can call me Lilly." she said with a slight giggle.

"You're cute."

'What the hell, brain?'

"What?"

"Nothing!" Odmi said with a blush.

"Ummm... Alrighty then... Anyway, I should probably show you the rest of the team. Right this way..." the enchanting angel named Lillith said, walking away. Odmi just stood there, staring at her.

"You coming or what?" Lilly called behind her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, wait up!" Odmi called, running after her.

'Maybe this won't be so bad after all...'

End of chapter 1.

So, that's chapter one! What do you guys think? Drop a comment, message me, etc... And if you see that anonymous reviews are blocked, try to tell me.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Meet and Greet  
"Aaaaand... We're here!" X shouted with utter glee as he released his grip on Pigg outside of a tent, who had now broken out of his state of shock.

"So, where's the rest of the team?" Pigg inquired, as there was no one outside the tent.

"Impatient one, aren't you? They're probably inside. Come in, I'll show you!" X exclaimed, and, with that, began dragging Pigg into the tent.

'I'm the impatient one?' he thought with a chuckle.

Inside, there were two other people; An Imperial woman, clad in standard issue Light Armor, and a male Wood Elf, who only wore Leather Armor and Fur Gloves, (painted green and black, which was no doubt a personal touch.)

The Elf had long blond hair, and was in one corner of the tent, sharpening some wooden arrows. Even in his current position, it was obvious he was the tallest (well, the second tallest now; It's hard to compete with an orc in height,) and his wiry frame gave the illusion of him being even taller. On his arm was a hawk of some kind, but it looked almost accustomed to the people surrounding him. Tied to its leg was a scroll of some sort. The Elf had a stern look on his face, and barely gave the two intruders a second glance.

The Imperial was standing over a map of the area, looking at it, and she seemed deep in thought, as if forming a strategy. She had short, straight brown hair, light blue eyes(though not as blue as X's, of course), and was about 6 feet tall. She was, well, hot, to be blunt. But, she had a Bond of Matrimony on her finger, barely showing on the area of her hand not covered by her gauntlet, indicating she was taken. She raised her head and smiled.

"Hey, X! There you are! And I'm gonna guess this guy is Piggnamub?" she said, walking over to X.

"Yeah, Luca. This is our new replacement for Hadvar." he said, with a sudden sad look on his face. He twirled his gloved finger subtly, and Luca, taking the hint, instantly looked forlorn.

"Uh, who is this "Hadvar" guy?" Pigg asked, obviously confused.

"Oh, he was our old Heavy Weapons expert." X said, looking melancholy.

"Was?"

"Yeah. About a week ago, he was killed in a fight with a pack of Sabercats when he was out getting supplies from the Mixwater mill down the road a ways, completely torn to pieces. We could barely identify the body..." Luca said, not missing a beat, adding a few sniffs at the end for dramatic effect. X seemed surprised for a split second, then regained his composure. Luca obviously had this.

"Woah, I'm sorry if I brought up any bad memories, I didn't know..." Pigg said, taken aback.

"It's alright... It's just that... Just..." Luca said.

"Just what?""It's just that... Hadvar..."

"What?"

"Hadvar... Got promoted last week, and we miss him so much."

"Oh, I'm so- Wait, what?"

"Gotcha." Luca said, flashing a toothy grin.

"Oh... That's pretty good! You really had me going there!" Pigg said with a laugh.

"And that's why I love you, Luca." X said, walking over to Luca and giving her a quick peck on the lips.

"Yeah, I can see why you... WHAT." Pigg said, with obvious shock written all over his face.

"Oh, right, I guess I forgot to mention, Pigg. I'm married." X said, removing his left glove, showing off his ring. "To this strong-willed heart of a woman." he added, reaching up to give another quick peck, this time on the cheek, making Luca blush.

"Awww... Thanks, honey. Love you too. Oh, and, I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name's Lucia, but you can call me Luca. I'm the squad leader. That guy over there who hasn't said anything yet is Fargoth, the archer, but we just call him Hunter. His little hawk friend is a messenger hawk, and it's name is Icarus. To be honest, it talks more than he does. And you've already met X, I see. And, I see he's already given you a nickname..."

"Yeah. As soon as I walked in." Pigg said, with a slight smile. "I genuinely don't care what you call me."

"Pigg it is, then. Welcome to the team. Head over to the forge to pick up your armor and weapons." Luca said, giving Pigg a handshake. Her muscles obviously were mainly in her upper body, as she damn near broke his hand.

After releasing her death grip, Luca went back to her map, X walked outside to wander around, and Hunter, still only concerned with his arrows, continued whittling. Icarus just stared at Pigg, causing a certain uneasiness within the orc, causing him to slowly back out of the tent.

'Why am I the Heavy Weapons guy? I'm probably the weakest one here!' he thought, breaking into a run, off to the forge.

Meanwhile, on the northern bank of Lake Ilinalta, Odmi was chasing Lilly to the camp. As he approached, he could hear some shouting.

"I don't care what he was doing, we do not hurt civilians!" a deep, commanding voice boomed out.

"But he was trespassing!" a younger, more annoying voice rang out, one with a heavy accent. It sounded like as if it were spoken through metal.

"Oh no, those two are at it again..." Lilly mumbled.

"Who?" Odmi asked her, noticing the look of sadness on his infatuation's face.

"Those two. See? See the big, old guy? He's Heimvar. And the small guy, with the facemask? That's Ingmar. They've been at each other's throats for a while now. This happens a lot."

"That's no reason to shoot the man!" Heimvar shouted at the smaller man, red in the face.

"That's no man, that's an Elf! And, anyway, I warned him! I shouted at him to get his yellow ass out of here! But he didn't listen, he just kept walking!" Ingmar shouted back.

"Ingmar, the Elf is deaf! He couldn't hear you!"

"Is he blind too?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then he should've seen the sign I put up back there saying 'No Trespassers'!" Ingmar said, and even though his face was hidden, anyone could tell he had a smirk of victory on his face.

Heimvar had calmed down considerably, but was still fuming. "You mean the one you put up last month?"

"Yeah, that one!"

"A mudcrab cut it to pieces. Last week. You. Idiot."

"Oh. W-well, he was obviously a spy-yeah, that's it!- for the Imperials..." Ingmar stuttered, obviously out of an argument.

"Ingmar, you are so damn stupid, it's unbelievable."

"What? What'd I do?"

By this time, Lilly and Odmi were just by the two men, but they were so wrapped up in arguing, they didn't notice the duo.

"Hey, boys." Lilly said, trying to get their attention, to no avail.

"BOYS!"

"Oh, hello Lillith. H-how long were you standing there?" Heimvar stuttered, embarrassed that someone saw him losing his temper.

"Oh, hey Lilly!" Ingmar yelled, still using his argument voice, unaware of this fact.

"Oh, I haven't been here too long. And, I've told you to call me Lilly!" she faux-pouted.

"I know, but it sounds so..."

"Personal?" she finished for him, with a smile. "I found the new guy, by the way."

"Uhhh... Hello?" Ingmar said again.

"Ah, the new recruit. Odmi, correct?" Heimvar said, ignoring Ingmar.

"Y-yes sir!" Odmi said, a little intimidated by the old man's height and his overall large appearance. The old man was surprisingly strong for his age, wearing heavy Steel Plated Armor, carrying a Steel Greatsword on his back. Truly, he was an intimidating man.

"Well, I'm Heimvar, and I'm the leader of this squadron. Welcome aboard. That guy over there that's trying to get your attention is Ingmar. Believe it or not, he's actually a pretty good shot with that crossbow on his back, just ask our High Elf friend in the hospital tent. And I see you've met Lilli-Lilly, already."

"Yes sir. Sir, if I may ask, what was that argument about?" Odmi said, obviously not used to calling anyone sir.

"Oh, that? Ingmar shot a deaf Elf who wandered into our camp. At least he hit him in the knee, and not the head or a killshot... And knock it off with the 'sirs' and all that. There's no need for formality here. We're like a family, this squad."

"Duly noted." Odmi said, glad he didn't have to keep up this whole formal persona. "So, what do I ne-"

"HEY! STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!" Ingmar shouted at a Dark Elf who was walking on the other side of the lake. At this range, it was obvious the Elf couldn't hear him (and it was obvious he wasn't trespassing), but Ingmar had already taken out his crossbow and was loading in a bolt.

"INGMAR, NO! Listen, I gotta go, Lillith, you handle this one. INGMAR!" Heimvar said to Lilly before running off and tackling Ingmar to the ground.

"We'll... We'll let them sort this out. Come on, I need to show you around." Lilly said with a smile.

Odmi was more than happy to oblige. He felt that he wanted to spend as much time as possible with this girl.

'Wow, that's shallow.'

'How's that, brain?'

'You love her for her looks. You barely know her name, and you're smitten.'

'...Okay, that doesn't sound too good, but I'll try to get to know her better later. Right now she's showing me the camp.'

'Fine. Just be sure you don't fall in love for the wrong reasons.'

Odmi finished his internal conversation, and ran up to Lilly, eager to learn more about her.

AN: So ends chapter two. To those wondering why this story is rated M, don't worry. It gets gruesome. Muahahahah!  
-LiE


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Picking Your Poison  
'The armory should be somewhere around the forge...' Pigg thought as he sifted through a sea of tents. He needed to "pick"his armor, but he was born to the role.

For one thing, his body type forced him to be in Heavy Armor. Orcs, for the most part, were bulky and were better suited for carrying heavier loads. As such, it was the only choice that made any sense.

For another thing, Pigg liked the feeling of being a tank from when he lived with his tribe, before... The falling out. He enjoyed the feeling of his enemy's attacks glance off his armor, while he moved in for a kill. He enjoyed the look of sheer terror on their faces as he would hit them with the face of his axe, doubling them over, and he enjoyed the spray of blood when he decapitated them. But, most of all, he enjoyed the feeling of invincibility that came with wearing thick armor, even though that invincibility came at the price of speed.

Eventually, he found the forge again, and, next to it was another (you guessed it) tent. Pigg stepped inside, and was severely underwhelmed.

Inside were six chests on shelves behind a counter, each individually marked "Heavy Armor", "Light Armor", "Two Handed", "One Handed","Shields", and "Bows/Arrows".  
'If all their equipment can fit in six chests, well...' Pigg thought grimly to himself.

"What'll it be, mah green friend?" a man said, popping up from behind the counter. The man had a familiar quality about him, appearance wise, but Pigg couldn't place his finger on it...Then, he saw the ears, and the eyes. It was X, it had to be! 'That man is so random... Might as well play along' Pigg thought to himself, letting slip a slight grin.

"Well? You come to gawk, or get some equipment?" The X Behind the Counter asked him.

"Uh, yeah. I need to pick up my armor... And a new ax." Pigg said, almost choking on that last statement. Gods, he missed his old Battleaxe. The one he had since he was old enough to swing an ax, the one he had loved like a brother, the one he had used in all his battles, and the one that shattered last week. He still kept a shard of the blade in a locket around his thick neck.

"Well, judgin' by the looks of ya, I'd venture a guess you need some Heavy Armor and a Battleaxe? Right away!" The X Behind the Counter said, opening the chest labeled "Heavy Armor". To Pigg's surprise, a full set of Imperial Heavy Armor, helmet and all, was pulled out, with a slight clang. The X Behind the Counter then moved over to the "Two Handed" chest, and pulled out a giant Steel Battleaxe that obviously should not fit in a chest so small. Pigg was tempted to run over and look into the chest, but was honestly more afraid of what he'd see than he was curious, and he decided to play it off as a mystery of the universe that would never be solved.

"This what you were lookin' fer?" The X Behind the Counter said after placing it all onto the counter.

"This is all about right..." Pigg said, then thought 'It's not Orcish, but it'll have to do...'  
"So, how much do I owe you?" Piggsaid, reaching for his coin purse.

"Aw, put that away! First set's always free!" The X Behind the Counter said, giving Pigg a little wink. The orc was grateful, as he actually had no money.

"Great! I'll just see if this fits..." Pigg said, picking up his armor and walking out.

"Be sure to come again, ya hear!" The X Behind the Counter said, giving a little wave before disappearing under the counter.

There was a flash of light, and X appeared in front of Pigg, just as he exited the tent.

"Ah, I see you've gotten your equipment." he said.

"But... How... You..." Pigg said, at a loss for words, wondering what kind of Black Magic trickery he just witnessed.

"Oh, that? Nothing major, just a new teleportation spell I've been working on for about a year now,I think I've worked out all the kinks, but anyway, hey! Enough about that, Luca needs to see us all at Home Base."

"Home Base?" Pigg asked, confused."Oh, that's just what we call that tent you saw us all in about an hour ago."

"We? As in, everyone?"

"Weeell... Mostly just me and Luca. Hunter never seemed too keen on calling it much... In fact, he never seemed much for talking. In all the years I've known him, I've only learned his name and a few other basic things." X said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Well, we wouldn't want to keep the missus waiting. She can get a bit... Serious, about these things."

"Just let me get my armor on, and I'll join you all."

"Please hurry. My wife values punctuality." X said, visibly concerned.

"How bad can she be?" Pigg said, remembering the woman he met just a short while ago.

X did not seem amused. His expression deadpan, he said, "Please don't test her, Pigg."

"You're serious?"

"Pigg, my wife scares me sometimes."

And with that, X teleported away, leaving a terrified orc in his wake, scrambling into his armor.

"So... What's your favorite flower?"

"What?" Lilly asked, obviously taken off guard by this random question.

"Sorry, sorry, stupid question." Odmi apologized, mentally beating himself up. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid...'

"-shade"

"Huh?" Odmi asked, taken time out from brutalizing his brain.

"You asked me what my favorite flower was. Nightshade."

"Oh. It's very... Ummm... Pretty."

'Just like you...' Odmi mumbled."What was that?" Lilly asked,

"What was what?" Odmi replied.

"You just said something, something like 'Just like...' and then you became too quiet.""Oh, u-umm... I said... Ummm... Just like... Boo! Yeah, Boo! My old dog! Yeah, he loved those things!"

"Ummm... You know they're poisonous, right?" Lilly said, stopping and staring at Odmi.

"O-oh, yeah... Y-yeah, yeah, he ummm... Liked the smell! Yeah, that's it, he liked the smell!" Odmi replied, obviously struggling to keep up appearances. True, he never had a dog, he was more of a cat person, but... She didn't need to know that.

"You never had a dog, did you?"

'Damn, she's good.'

"Ummm... No. But, I do like Nightshade!"

"Huh. Alrighty then. So... Any more random questions?" Lilly said, a smile forming.

"Actually, yes! What's your-"

"Oh, look at that! We're here! This is our armory." Lilly said, interrupting Odmi midsentance.

"Oh... Okay." Odmi said, more than a little saddened by this arrival.

"Head inside and get your equipment. I'll be out here waiting for you."

"Okay..." Odmi said, a bitcheered up hearing this. 'So, she does want to spend time with me!'

"I mean, I still have to show you the rest of the camp, right?"

'Owww... My spirit...'

"What was that?"

"Oh, I was just thinking to myself..."

"You do that a lot, don't you?" Lilly said, giving him an odd look.

"Yeah, I guess..." was the reply, and the melancholy nord dissapeared into the tent.

When he walked out a few minutes later, he was decked out with a standard issue cuirass and a sharpened steel sword.

"Wow, this seems like quality steel!" he said, obviously strucken out of his stupor by this astounding blade.

"Yeah, we get all of our weapons from the Skyforge in Whiterun. Come on, we have to see the rest of the camp." Lilly said, leading him away.

"Yeah, we shou- The Skyforge? As in -The- Skyforge?" Odmi said, obviously impressed.

"Yeah, I think Heimvar has a cousin in the Companions, so we get a discount. Anyway, we were having a conversation?"

"Oh, right. What do you do for fun around here?"

"Oh, I usually like to go down to the lakefront and look around, try to spot something new. It's really beautiful! I've got this one really great spot that I don't think anyone else knows about. In fact, I should show you. Come on!" Lilly said, grabbing Odmi's arm.

"Shouldn't I see the rest of the camp first?"

'What am I saying?'

"I guess you're right..."

"But, I guess you could show me the camp sometime else. Let's go!" Odmi said, realizing his near catastrophic mistake.

"Yeah! And, it's the perfect time of day! Look, it's almost sunset, the lake's really astounding around this time."

As they approached the lake, a million thoughts raced through Odmi's mind. Mainly, the were along the lines of 'This is great! I'm getting to spend time with Lilly at one of the most beautiful spots in Skyrim!' and 'Gods, I love this girl!'When they arrived, however, Odmi's mind went blank. He was too transfixed by the sight that was Lilly in a sunset. The light seemed to bounce off of her,while at the same time, it seemed that the light was attracted to her. The wondrous hues were shining all around her as she sat down by the water.

Theduo was on a little stretch of land that jutted out into the water, and you could see one of the standing stones out on the lake, and, off in the distance, you could see a ruined castle or fort sunken into the lake. It was a sight to behold, but all Odmi was looking at was Lilly.

"...Beautiful..." Odmi said, talking about his goddess.

"It sure is..." Lilly replied, obviously talking about the sight.

At this point, Odmi wanted nothing more than to profess his attraction to this girl, but, to be blunt, he was afraid. He had never told a girl he loved them, but, then again, he never felt this way about anyone before. He decided he would risk it.

"Lilly, there's something I want to ask you."

"Another pointless question? Ask away." Lilly said with a smile.

"No, I... I wanted to know something a- a bit more serious." was the reply. Odmi had a bit of a frog in his throat, and for good reason. He was about to profess his love for a goddess.

"Hmmm? What would that be?"

"Ummm... Do you... And it's fine if you don't but... Ummm... I really like -"

"HEY! YOU TWO! CAP'N IS CALLING A MEETING!" a voice sounded out behind them. An unmistakable voice. One that sounded like it was spoken through metal.

'Dammit Ingmar...' Odmi thought to himself. But, deep down, he was thankful he didn't have to say it yet. 'Maybe after the meeting...' he thought.

"Fine! We're coming! Sorry, we better go. If Heimvar had to call a meeting this late, it's probably something important. Come on." Lilly said. "We'll continue this conversation sometime later, okay?"

"F-f-fine." Odmi said, obviously not over the frog in his throat.

'Wonder how long that will last...' he thought as he got up and started following Lilly.

AN: And thus ends chapter three. Again, give me an answer, drop me a line, stating point of view. That is all.  
-LiE


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Prepare Your Anuses

As Pigg approached the "Home Base", he could hear yelling emanating from the tent.

"Where in Oblivion is the damned Orc?" an insane, hate filled voice said.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon, hon..." Pigg heard a much, much calmer voice say.

"He better be! If he isn't here in the next minute, we're starting without him!"

"Now dear, is that really wise? He is a member of-"

"This team? I don't care, he shouldn't be late! He's in the military now!"

"It is his first day... Maybe he got lost?"

"I didn't get lost on my first day!"

"Well, you were here helping build the camp..."Pigg suddenly realized he should probably go inside. He opened up the flap of the tent and briskly walked in. Hunter was sitting in a chair, listening intently, and Icarus was situated on the back of said chair, picking at its feathers. Luca was pacing in the tent, shouting up a storm (figuratively, of course). X was beside his wife, trying to calm her down, but when Pigg walked in, she exploded.

"Where have you been? Do you realize how long we've been waiting? Do you even care?" Luca shot at Pigg with venom in her voice.

'Whoa, X wasn't kidding... She's like a whole other person...'

"Well? I'm waiting! What's your excuse?"

"I, uh, h-had to get m-my equipment." Pigg said back, shaken.

"That's a bad excuse if I've ever heard one! Surely it doesn't take that long to get your armor?" Luca shot back.

"Well, no, but I can't exactly move very quickly with this armor." Pigg defended.

"Hmmm... That's a good point. Well, that still doesn't excuse your tardiness, but I'll let it slide... For now."

X, who in the confusion had sneaked over by Pigg, nudged him and whispered, "Wow, your lucky! She's letting you off the hook! She's never done this before... To anyone!"

"Really? And, is she always like this at meetings?" Pigg whispered back.

"No, usually just when someone's late."

"Oh, okay."

"But, once a month, for a few days..."

"Enough said."

"Well, now that we're all together, we can finally get this meeting underway." Luca said, apparently unaware of the hushed conversation that had just taken place. Taking her place by the table holding the map of Skyrim, she began talking.

"Our target, is right here. Fort Amol."

"What do you mean?" Pigg asked, confused.

Hunter shook his head. Luca just sighed and said, "I'm sure you know that we're at war, right?"

"Well, of course." was Pigg's reply.

"So, to weaken the enemy, we need to attack forts."

"Just us? No one else?"

"Well, I guess... General Tullius has his... Yes."

"Good. Less complications."

"Ah,that's the spirit! So, as I was saying, our next target is Fort Amol. Now, Icarus has done some reconnaissance on the fort, and-"

"Ummm, question." Pigg interrupted.

"Yes? What could you possibly be confused about?" Luca said.

"That's a hawk." Pigg said, pointing at Icarus.

"Your point?" Luca asked."Well, how did we get information from it?"

Another disapproving head shake from Hunter, and another sigh from Luca.

"I'm sure you've noticed that Hunter is an elf... Right? You're smart enough to see that?"

"Yes, but-"

"Well, he's a Wood Elf."

"So?"

A general cry of disgruntlement rang throughout the tent, save from Hunter, who remained silent.

"So... Wood Elves can communicate with wildlife! Gods, are all orcs this thick?"

"No, hun. I think that the librarian at the Mage's College is still an orc, if they haven't gotten rid of him that is. He seemed to have a thing for books, if you know what I mean." X answered his wife's rhetorical question with a smirk.

"No, I mean- What? Ewww... That's disgusting!" Luca said, shaking her head, trying to expunge the evil thoughts that had crept into her mind from that statement.

"What's wrong, honey bunches?" X asked with a wide smile. "Can't take a few unpure thoughts?"

"You'd think I'd be used to it by now... Married to you..." Luca said with a slight grimace. Shaking herself, she continued, "Well, like I said, Icarus has done some reconnaissance on the fort, and it seems that there are two points of entrance: The front gate, which is not even an option on a fort like this one, and a collapsed segment of wall in the east. Normally, this would be a death wish, to mount a frontal assault against a fort like this, but, if we enter under the cover of night through that break in the wall, we should be able to enter undetected, from which we can proceed to rain destruction down upon the heads of the occupants. Now, Hunter will hang back, providing fire and picking off targets as they become available. Does that sound acceptable to you?"

"Yes. Understood." Hunter said.

With these two words, Pigg learned more about Hunter than he had since his arrival this morning. Hunter had spoken in a deep, calm voice, the voice of a man who is in a state of equilibrium, but also of a man who would be ready to attack at the drop of the metaphorical pin. He spoke using as few words as necessary, not wasting anymore energy than he had to. Though these two words were utterly uninspiring and uneventful in every way, they had a lasting effect on the tent, and even Luca was silent for a moment before continuing.

"So, Pigg, X,and I are to sneak into the fort, and, on my signal, X will use his lightning to start a fire in one of the hay bales. This will signal our attack. At this signal, we are to expose ourselves and attack any opponents with extreme prejudice. Any objections?"

"Ummm... Yes. I have one." Pigg said. "Isn't it dishonorable to sneak around into a fort? Wouldn't it be more fair to attack head on?"

Luca looked up at Pigg, and began pacing. "Pigg, since you're new to full on war, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. All war is based on deceit." she said, pointing at him, then continuing pacing. "The moment that we take honor into account, we may as well surrender. Why? Because, do you honestly think that these lawless Stormcloak dogs are going to be playing fair? No! They're going to use every trick and lie and cunning tactic they can to gain support and try to defeat us. Now, some may argue that we are better than them and that we don't need to use their tactics to beat them. However, look at recent history. In the Great War with the Aldmeri Dominion, a force of great magnitude, our force, was easily toppled by a much smaller force. Why? Because the smaller force didn't play fair. Now, if we are to defeat these dogs, we must play their game. But, we must play it their way, as our way is inadequate based on the situation. Now, if that seems 'dishonorable' to you and you don't like the way I choose to lead my squadron, you might want to seek a different profession. Because this is the way we're doing it. This is the only way we can do it to cause the least amount of casualties. And this is the only way we can do it so we can guarantee a victory." Luca said, finished her speech. Pigg looked around, obviously thunderstruck, then stepped back into place.

"Glad we got that settled. Any other questions? No? Good. Now, you may go to your tents. We attack tomorrow night. You are dismissed." she said. The team dispersed and headed back to their bunking tents.

"So,you ready for tomorrow?" X said with a smile to Pigg as they approached the soldier's barracks (tents).

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I am. You?"

"My body is ready."

* * *

"Ah, there you are. I'm glad you could make it." Heimvar said with a grin.

"Right, well... We got sidetracked a bit..." Lilly said. "So, what did you need to tell us about?"

"Ah, well, you see, we recently received orders to attack Fort Sungard, to the west. Now, I-" Heimvar started.

"We? As in, just us four?" Odmi interrupted.

"Yes, just us four. Now, if we-"

"But... But that's suicide! Four soldiers can't take a fort by themselves! That's madness!" Odmi shouted, outraged and terrified by the prospect.

"Calm yourself, Odmi. A true Nord such as yourself should not be troubled by such menial thoughts. A Nord does not fear death; No, he embraces the thought of dying in battle! And so should you." Heimvar calmly told Odmi, who, while still visibly shaken, calmed down slightly and had, at least, stopped shouting. "Now, if we are to even think about taking this fort, we need to think about strategy. Now, after looking over the map of the fort I purchased in Falkreath, I can only see one option. If we are to even attack the fort, we must attack it head on, from the front gate, as it is conveniently surrounded by cliffs. Calm yourself, Odmi, I have full confidence that everything will go well. Now, since the fort is such a distance away, we must begin the journey at daybreak. This way, we will arrive there at around 5:00, calm yourself Odmi, I'm sure everything will be fine, and at that point, Ingmar will take out the archer in the tower at the front of the fort. He will then take that tower, and provide fire upon any enemy he sees. Calm yourself Odmi, I'm sure we'll be fine." Heimvar added.

"How can we? We have to attack a reinforced fort with four men, in broad daylight, after marching Gods know how many miles, and then, by some divine miracle, make it up to the camp so that bozo over here can take out an archer, who he may or may not kill, and then we have to actually attack the fort, where we'll probably all end up dead! So don't tell me to calm down!"

"...You've never been in a real battle before, have you?" Heimvar said softly, drawing a surprise out of Lilly and causing Odmi to look down in shame, but surprisingly drawing nothing out of Ingmar, who had been surprisingly quiet the entire time. "Yes, I can see it in your eyes. You lack the look of a true warrior. Don't worry, we still have time until the battle and until you have to rest. Perhaps we can sneak some training in, hmm?" he added.

"Y-yes, that would be good..." Odmi said, looking up with a slight smile.

"Lillith, what do you think of the plan?" Heimvar asked, turning his attention to the small brunette.

"Well, I don't like our odds, but I don't see any other choice... I've been over there, and I don't see any other way inside... Except through this one cave that leads to a tower, but there is noway we can possibly scale the drop off into the tower itself."

"Ah, right! I nearly forgot we sent you over to do reconnaissance work a while ago. I'm surprised you remember any of it, it was so long ago." Heimvar added.

"What about you Ingmar? You've been quiet up until now. What do you think?" Heimvar said, turning his attention upon the masked archer. Ingmar, however, said nothing.

"I think he's asleep..." Odmi ventured a guess.

"Ah well. I'll inform him of his job on the road." Heimvar said, picking Ingmar up. "You're all dismissed. After I put Ingmar to bed, I'll see you at the training field." he said, talking to Odmi.

The team dispersed, and Odmi headed out to the training field.

*15 minutes later*

Odmi was swinging away at the training dummy when Heimvar walked up to him.

The older leader put a hand on the young recruit's shoulder and said,"You lack proper form. Here, I'll show you."

Heimvar took the sword away from the boy and stood about ten meters away from him, facing him.

"See how my legs are locked up and close together, like yours were? Don't do that. Instead, take a wider stance, and loosen up your leg muscles. Also, try not to stand in one place, try to move around more. It's harder to hit a moving target, and the momentum will make your blows more powerful." Heimvar said, and with that, he let loose a flurry of swings that flowed so well into one another, it almost appeared as if he were dancing. It truly was a sight to behold.

With every slice, with every swipe of the steel, the elder man seemed to be cutting the very air in which he was swinging in. The air was his canvas, and his sword, his brush, and he was truly making masterpieces. Left, right, slash, swipe. Time seemed to slow around him, and the man exhibited a speed that should not exist in a man of his age. He was nearly flying around the field, every slash precisely on target with every invisible Imperial in his path. This swords dance was awe inspiring, and it was all Odmi could do to not stare in disbelief. Instead, he tried his hardest to make note of every artistic swipe his leader made.

After this stunning display, Heimvar walked over to Odmi and handed him his sword. "Now, by no means do I expect you to be able to match that. It took me years to master this. However, if you follow my basic stance and format, you'll be a sword master in no time. Now, try practicing on that dummy behind you."

Odmi numbly took his sword and turned around. He took a relaxed stance, raised his sword, and took a few swings. It wasn't anything impressive, but it was decent.

"Good,good... Try a few other techniques."

Odmi thought for a second, then came up with an idea. "How's this?" he said, then proceeded to sheathe his sword. He reached under his cuirass and pulled out an iron dagger.

"Hmmm? Where did you get that?" Heimvar said, looking at the dagger.

"Oh, I've had this since before I got here. I'm halfway decent with it." he replied, and proceeded to let loose a near invisible flurry of quick blows. He was so fast, he seemed to be a blur, but none of his blows seemed to be very deep, barely enough to draw blood in some places.

"You're fast, I'll give you that. But speed is nothing if you have no strength behind your blows."

"That's why I don't use it that much. And why I decided to use a sword."

"Ah, I see. And where did you acquire this dagger?"

"Oh, well, in my days in Rifted, I met a guy. Odd fellow, he was. But, he was my only friend. We stuck together through everything, and we were inseparable. But, he ended up going to Solitude to pursue his higher calling. But, before he left, we bought two daggers, and we did this little ritual thing, and we agreed to keep the daggers as a memory of the other person."

"Ah. Well, keep up the work on that dummy. I suggest not using that dagger, just because there isn't that much weight behind it, I don't think you'd be able to actually kill someone like that."

Odmi nodded, put the dagger back, and unsheathed his sword. He practiced a bit more when Heimvar spoke up again.

"So, I've noticed you've got a bit of a thing for Lillith?"

"W-what? What are you talking about?" Odmi replied nervously.

"Oh, there's no need to hide it! I've seen the way you look at her. You couldn't take your eyes off her the entire briefing. In fact, I think she's the only person who doesn't know."

"O-oh... Right... So, what of it?"

"Not a thing, not a thing... Just, try to get to know her better before you rush into anything."

"I'll keep that in mind."

'What did I tell you?'

'Shut up, brain. Focus on the exercise.'

"Well, I think that's enough for tonight. You're about as ready as you're going to be. Come one. You need your sleep."

And with that, the exercise was over, and Odmi went back to his tent. As he laid there, trying to fall asleep, he took out the dagger and stared at it.

"I wonder where you are, old friend..."

* * *

AN: That's the end of day 1. There's a big ole' fight scene comin' up in about two chapters, so, stay tuned!  
-LiE


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Really long chapter here, don't let that discourage you!

Chapter 5: Why We Fight

"So... It looks like we have a tent together." Pigg said to the Bosmer, to which the only reply was a nod.

"So, I guess we should probably try to..." Pigg started to say, then abruptly stopped as the Wood Elf walked into the tent. Shaking his head, he stepped into the tent. 'This'll be an interesting conversation...'

"So... Hunter, right?" Pigg said, trying to spark a conversation. His only reply was another nod. The Bosmer went on to begin cleaning his hawk's feathers.

"So... Why do they call you that."

"I hunt.""Oh... Okay. So... What do you hunt?"

"Animals. Game." was the short response, and with that, the Wood Elf began sharpening some arrows.

"Oh, I see you make your own arrows. Why is that?"

"My arrows are better."

"Oh. Okay. Hmmm..."

"Goodnight."

"Oh, what? Oh, right. Goodnight." Pigg said, seeing that he wasn't going to get much of a reaction out of this silent elf. He decided to roll over and try to get some sleep. He had a big day tomorrow. His blade would finally taste flesh soon after so long. He reached under his armor, pulled out the blade shard from around his neck, gave it a slight kiss, and headed off to bed.

Come morning, he rolled out of his bedroll, only to see he was alone in the tent. Hunter, early riser that he likely was, had probably gotten up and was getting his breakfast.

'I should probably, too.' Pigg thought, his stomach giving a growl.

Upon reaching the large tent the soldiers called a mess hall, Pigg was greeted by a familiar laughter.

"Haha! I see you finally decided to get out of bed! Come on, I saved you a spot over at a table by me." X said, taking Pigg by the arm. X proceeded to half drag-half carry Pigg towards a table.

Upon arriving, Pigg saw the rest of the squad also at the table. Luca was there, eating some type of unidentified gruel, and she was sitting next to Hunter, who, conversely, was eating what appeared to be some kind of raw venison. Icarus was also joining in on this "feast". X dragged him over to the other side of the table, plopped him down, and produced a plate of gruel from thin air, and placed it before him.

"X, wouldn't you want to sit by your wife?"

"What? Oh, she said it was fine. Didn't you, honey?"

"Yes, dear. Of course I'm fine with it." Luca said, obviously not fine with the proposition.

"See? Now, let's talk."

"Uh... Okay." Pigg said, unsure about this prospect.

"So, why would an orc like yourself join the Imperial Legion?"

"Would you rather I join the Stormcloaks? Because I don't think they'd accept me..."

"No, that's not what I mean at all! I mean, wouldn't you rather travel with a tribe or something?" X said, realizing his mistake.

The orc let out a depressing sigh, and said, "I did. For the longest time. But, recently, I was banished from my tribe."

"Why?" X asked.

By this point, Luca seemed genuinely intrigued, and even Hunter looked up. Icarus, however, being a hawk, continued eating the venison.

"Well, I forsake Malacath."

"Oh, right... Orcs generally worship Malacath... Why'd you lose faith in him?"

"Well, I believed in him up until one day, when me and some of my tribe members were off on a routine outing. We were supposed to gather food for the stronghold. No problem, right? Well, we were attacked by a pack of sabrecats. Everyone was killed, except me of course, and I realized then and there that no just deity would allow that. I then realized 'Why worship an unjust god?' And so, word spread around the stronghold that I had stopped worshiping Malacath. When the Chief found out, I was banished. Haven't been back there since. Last I heard, the stronghold was overrun by giants. Serves 'em right." Pigg explained, finishing his story with a slight chuckle.

"But, don't you miss your old friends?" Luca piped up.

"All my friends died in that sabrecat attack. True friends wouldn't banish someone based on their belief system." Pigg replied flatly. "What about you? Why are you here?"

Luca looked at him for a second, then replied, "Well, I was raised in the Imperial City, in Cyrodil. My father was a Legate. Because of this, my family had a pretty steady supply of gold, and my mother provided me a pretty sheltered life with it. I was home schooled by a private tutor, and I was given just about every opportunity to succeed. People were saying I could become a politician or something along those lines. But then..." she paused here. There was a tear in her eye, and her lip was trembling. X got up and walked around to comfort her, but she pushed him away, saying, "No, I can do this." X still had a concerned look on his face for his wife, but he knew that she was a strong, stubborn woman. If she wanted to do this, she was going to.

"But then, my family got word that my father was killed. Killed in an ambush, defending his camp from bandits. Bandits! Not even from the enemy! He died for nothing!"

By this point, her tears were flowing freely. X once again got up to comfort her, but this time, she let him. After about a minute or so of bawling into her husband's arms, she continued, her eyes red and bloodshot.

"Well, on that day, I joined the military. I just wanted to... To do my father's memory justice. Because of my intelligence, I was able to quickly rise up through the ranks to be where I am today. It's my dream to one day become a Legate, and on that day, I'm going to retire."

"And I'll retire with you, dear." X said, hugging her tighter. She whispered, "I love you," and they shared a short kiss.

There was a brief moment of silence, where no one was sure what to say next.

"So, what about you, X? What's your story?" Pigg said, desperate to break the silence.

"Me? Oh, I'm sure no one wants to hear that..." was the reply.

"Oh, alright then. We should start heading out any-"

"But... If you insist... Well, I had the good fortune of being born in Winterhold. Once I became of age, I joined up with the College. It was great, I made some friends, and I had some good memories. But, a prank went... Awry." X said, pausing for a moment.

"What happened?" Pigg asked.

"Oh, something to do with mudcrabs, a Frenzy spell and the Arcanaeum... Suffice it to say, Urag wasn't entertained. I was expelled and on my own at the age of 14. You see, after my expulsion, my parents had disowned me. Doesn't matter, it was worth it." X said, without a hint of remorse.

"But, like I said I was on my own. Through a... Series of events that even I don't remember, I ended up in Riften. 'Well,' I thought, 'If I can make it in Riften, I can make it anywhere!'" he said with a twinge of pride. "Well, in the City of Beggars and Thieves, I was... A beggar." he said, his pride gone.

"Well, anyway, in the city, I met up with a younger boy, around 10 or so, who had just ran away from Honorhall Orphanage after the caretaker, Grelod the Kind, was murdered. Sad state of affairs, that was, but he didn't seem very affected by it. If anything, he seemed... Happy. But, in any case, me and him were inseparable."

"Well, one day, I was out practicing my magic, and some of the guards saw me. They said to me, 'Son, have you ever put any thought into a military career?'" he said in a deep, gruff voice.

"Well, of course I hadn't, but I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to get an income. I immediately signed up. But, when I told my buddy, he was devastated. So, I decided to use the last of my money to buy two Iron Daggers. We performed this blood ritual, and I... Well, I took a bit of his soul and put into" he said, unsheathing a dagger from under his robe, "this dagger, and I did the same with his dagger. So we'd always be together," he said, re-sheathing the dagger.

"You never told me that last part. Why's that?" Luca said, somewhat over her little scene a while back.

"Oh, I didn't? Must've slipped my mind..." X replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "Now, shouldn't we start going? It's already after noon, so if we want to get to the fort by nightfall, we should start now."

"Yeah, I guess." Luca said, standing up. "Well,team. Let's head out!"

The team all stood up, and Icarus took to the sky. They began the trek to Fort Amol.

About halfway to the fort, Pigg realized something.

"Hey, wait. We all told our stories... Except for Hunter."

"Hey, yeah! So, what's yours?" X said, turning to Hunter...

To which the reply was a shake of the head.

"Come on, we've all told ours. It's your turn!" X tried again.

"No."

"Hunter, as your squad leader, I am commanding you to tell us why you chose to join the Legion." Luca said jokingly.

"It wasn't my choice." he said, stopping.

"How's that?" Pigg said, intrigued.

The Bosmer exploded. "Fine! You want to know? I'll tell you!" he shouted.

When he shouted, it seemed as though the world stopped. It seemed that the wind stopped blowing, the trees stopped shaking, and the animals stopped chittering. Icarus flew down and landed on his shoulder and put his wing around Hunter's head, as if he were trying to calm the elf.

After a few deep breaths, Hunter began his story. "I was born on the northern bank of Lake Ilinalta, as you all know it. I was born as what you would call a "Wild Elf". I lived in the wilderness. I hunted to live, nothing more. I raised my hawk from an egg, and he has been my hunting partner since he was old enough to fly. I have never known my family. Recently, I was forced to leave my home so soldiers could make room for a camp. So, I headed north. This process repeated itself until I was near your city of Solitude," he said, back to his regular tone of voice.

"I'm scared." X whispered to his wife.

"I am too. I've never heard him say this much before."

"When I was outside your gates, I was hunting a wild sabrecat, and I was arrested. The guards told me that these monsters were endangered and protected. They told me that I could either join the Legion, or face execution. I didn't want to die, so I joined your military. As soon as my sentence is up, I'm leaving with my hawk, and I'm going to Valenwood to meet with others of my kind. And that's why I'm here. I was forced into this life."

The team was struck. They were at a loss for words, and they just stared at one another. But, it was X who broke the silence.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, and I'm sorry about what's happened to you, but it looks like we're here."

And indeed they had arrived. The team decided to set up camp and wait until nightfall.

"Now, everyone remembers their jobs?" Luca said, running a last minute check before the attack. Night had fallen, and the team had somehow not been noticed. Once she had made sure everyone was ready, Hunter moved into position on a ridge nearby, and the others moved towards the hole in the fort's defenses.

Everyone was fully decked out in their armor, except Luca,who wasn't wearing a helmet.

"Ummm... Luca? Don't you think you should put on your helmet?" Pigg asked his team leader.

"Why? It's made of leather, and it won't protect anyone from anything. All it does is make me uncomfortable."

"Alright then. Your funeral..." Pigg replied, uncertain. He pulled on his own helmet, shaking his head. While he was excited that his blade would taste flesh, he still had reservations against sneaking into a fort. He would much rather face his opponent in face-to-face combat. But, he knew there wasn't any convincing his team leader.

And with that, the team began the attack.

* * *

Odmi rode into a burning fort on a brilliant white stallion, his red hair flowing in the breeze behind him. He was a man on a mission, and no amount of super-enhanced fire-trolls was going to stop him.

He rode in swiftly, decapitating everything between him and his princess. He reached the castle,bust down the doors, grabbed the fair maiden Lillith, and pulled her onto his horse. She opened her lips to speak, to utter a phrase of thanks, or possibly proclaim undying love, and she said,

"Rise an' shine! We leave in 30 minutes!"

A familiar, metallic voice roused Odmi from his dream. He slowly lifted his head from his pillow, in a post-sleep stupor. He gazed around the tent, his vision a little blurry.

Because he had gotten into his tent so late at night, Odmi had no idea who he was sharing a tent with, as he could not see the person next to him in the darkness. He could figure now he was paired with that annoying archer, Ingmar.

"Ugh... Fine. I'll be up soon..."

After about 15 minutes, Odmi was up and in his armor. He headed out of the tent, and walked over to join his team.

"I see you're awake? Good. Now we can head out." Heimvar said as Odmi half-stumbled towards the trio. "Grab some food for the trip, and meet us at the gate."

After gathering up some foodstuff and putting it in his satchel, he approached the north gate to rendezvous with his teammates. When they were all together, they headed off on the road towards Fort Sungard.

"So, about how long will this trip take? You know, until we're at the fort?" Odmi asked.

The reply came from Lilly, who answered, "About 4 hours, if we hurry."

"Really? Only four? Seems farther than that..." Odmi said, slightly in disbelief.

"Yeah. I've been this way a few times. I should know a few shortcuts," was the reply.

"Oh, right. You're the scout... Are you sure you want to fight?" Odmi asked.

"What do you mean?" Lilly whipped around with malice in her eyes.

"Well, I-I mean, w-wouldn't your skills be more suited outside the b-battlefield?" Odmi weakly replied, scared now.

"I can handle myself fine, thank you." came the reply, then, less hostile, "But, thank you for your concern. Yes, I'm a scout, and that means I'm more suited for stealth and things like that, but I know how to wield a dagger."

"Oh . Okay. That's reasonable," was the reply, and the team carried on in silence for about an hour.

"So, why'd you join the rebellion?"

Heimvar asked the question out of nowhere, and it took the group by surprise. No one answered until Odmi ventured a reply.

"M-me?"

"Yes, you boy! You don't have any combat experience, and you're pretty timid, from what I've seen. So, why military?"

Odmi thought about it for a little while, then replied, "I don't really know. I guess I just needed the Septims."

"So, why not mercenary work?"

"Well, I've never really liked mercenaries. Never trusted 'em."

"Well, why not just take a job selling things? Why employ yourself in the killing business?"

"Hah!" Odmi laughed once, shortly and sarcasticallysarcastic. "With my background? No one would ever hire me!"

"What do you mean?"

"I guess I should start from the top, shouldn't I?"

"Explain in any way you see fit."

"Well, I was an orphan from birth. Never really knew my parents," Odmi started. This drew an empathetic "awww..." from the girl of the group, and Odmi continued. "Well,since I was born in Riften, some people decided to drop me off at Honorhall." At the mention of the orphanage, the red-haired Nord just about spat on the ground.

"I'm guessing you didn't really care for Honorhall?" Heimvar guessed, picking up on the hostility with which he said that word.

"Not at all. That Grelod was a bitch, anyway you look at it. One time, she had me locked up in shackles in a side room for three days, for being accused of stealing food! I knew who it was, it was Aventus. But, when I tried telling Grelod that, she didn't believe me, and she chained me up. Well, on my third day, I heard a commotion outside, and a scream. Then, a man opened up the door, and set me free. I asked him, 'Are you an angel?' and he just looked at me and said, 'Kid, I'm no angel. I'm just the Dragonborn.'"

"Wait, the Dragonborn? As in -THE- Dragonborn? Dovahkiin? He saved you?" Ingmar interrupted.

"Yes, the Dragonborn. Anyway, after that,-"

"I don't believe you. Prove it."

"How? How in Oblivion am I supposed to prove the Dragonborn saved me?"

"..."

"That's what I thought. Anyway, like I was saying, after he freed me, I bolted for the door, and was the first one out of that hell-hole."

Odmi continued, "Well, after that, I was on my own. No job, no money, no family. I begged on the street, and almost got caught up with the Thieves Guild. But, one person saved me from that fate. He kept me from danger, and growing up, he was my father figure. He was like my big brother."

"He had... A certain madness to him. He had these wild, electric blue eyes, and he had these weird pointed ears. I guess he was a Breton or something, but he didn't act like one. He always was bounding around, and he was basically insane. We stole together, we ate together, and we lived together."

"Well, what was his name?" Lilly asked."It was... I don't remember his real name. But, he always used the nickname 'X'. He had nicknames for everyone, called me 'Odin', for some reason. I have no idea where he pulled that one from..."

"But, like I said, we were good buddies. Until one day, he was off harassing the guards, for kicks, and he somehow ended up getting recruited. Needless to say, I was devastated. My only family was leaving me. My father, my big brother, my best friend forever, and he was leaving. " Odmi said with a slight tear in his eye.

"But, before he left, he spent the last of his savings to buy some daggers. We did this weird ritual, and... And, it felt like a siphon was sucking out my energy for a second. But, then it was over, and he gave me his dagger, saying, 'There. Now, we'll always be together.' And, that's the last I saw of him. Unfortunately, after he left, I fell down on my luck. I fell pretty deep into debt, and with my reputation of being a thief, I couldn't get a job. So, I signed with the Stormcloaks. Not the Imperials, just because they wouldn't accept me. I really have no stance on this war, sorry to disappoint." Odmi finished. Then, he turned his attention to Heimvar, and asked, "What about you? What's your story?"

"Me? Oh, I've been a military man all my life. Fought with Ulfric Stormcloak himself in the Great War. Ended up getting captured, though. But,while I was imprisoned, Talos spoke to me. He told me secrets, like how to escape from that prison. Since then, I devoted myself to preaching the word of the almighty Talos to all who would listen. I set up camp in Whiterun, and stood outside the statue they had there. But, when I learned the worship was outlawed, I knew I had to do something. I put down the book, and picked up my old sword, and I went off to Windhelm to join the rebellion. I just want Talos to be accepted again. I have nothing against elves, I have nothing against Imperials, I just love my Divine." Heimvar said.

"Really? That's interesting... And what about you, Lilly?" Odmi asked, turning his attention to the brunette, who was a bit busy watching the trail.

"Oh, me? I'm nothing special... If we turn right here, we should be able to shave hours off the walking time. This way." she said, leading the squad down a heavily forested path."Like I was saying, my story isn't that impressive. I just wanted to make my father proud."

"Who's your father?"

"Galmor Stone-Fist, perhaps you've heard of him?" she said with a smirk. Heimvar's jaw dropped slightly, but then he regained his composure.

"Well, like I was saying, I just wanted to make my father proud. I never had any real interest in this war, but, my dad obviously did. We've had a... Rocky relationship, since my mom left him, and we never really connected. I just hope that by doing this, I can make him proud of something I've done, so he'd acknowledge me at least. I just... I just want him to love me."

"Oh, I'm sure he loves you." Odmi interjected, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"He sure doesn't act like it."

"You said you're fighting this to impress your dad?" Ingmar asked, looking over to the girl on his right.

"Yes, but I don't see why you should care."

"Well, you see, I-"

"Listen, Ingmar. I know you're going to say something racist against elves, or demeaning to women, or something. Save it. I don't care right now." Lilly said, staring at the masked archer.

"A-alright." Ingmar said, reaching up his left hand to his mask.

* * *

He could hear it; he could feel it. After all these years, the memories came flooding back to him. Every slash of the blade, every scream for help, every yell for obedience, he was experiencing it again

"HOW DARE YOU BRING THIS FILTH INTO MY HOME!"

Slash, tear.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry dad!"

"SORRY'S NOT GOING TO CUT IT! I'VE TOLD YOU TIME AND TIME AGAIN NOT TO ASSOCIATE YOURSELF WITH THIS FILTHY RACE, AND WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU BRING A DAMN ELF INTO MY HOME!

Slash, rip, slash.

"Please!"

"Oh? Please? You think 'please' will fix this taint you've brought to yourself? GET REAL, DUMBASS.

Punch, tear, slash.

"Gods, you're hurting me!"

"THAT'S THEPOINT! Hold still, while I cut you!"

Cut, slash.

"There. That oughta teach you a lesson. Now, pick yourself up, and go clean your damn room, shithead."Kick.

Ingmar wobbled to his feet, his face heavily bleeding. Scars covered his face, from where his father had cut him with that knife before for being associated with elves.

He didn't see why the elves were so bad. To him, they were like anyone else. But, his father despised them. So, when he even mentioned elves in his presence, he was beaten and cut.

But this time, he had brought one inside. And his father cut him more than he ever had.

Finally,something within Ingmar's ten year old mind snapped, or realigned, depending on your viewpoint. He associated all elves with the knife. The horrid knife. The sharp knife.

He had to get rid of the knife.

If he got rid of the knife, his dad would love him.

If he got rid of the knife, he'd be free.

He put a hand to his face.

He would get rid of them for what they did to him.

* * *

Ingmar slowly pulled his hand away from the disfigured mess underneath the mask, and continued walking.

"Up around... Here! We should turn here. This'll take us right up to the fortress." Lilly said. "Everyone ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be..." Odmi replied.

"Good. Now, Ingmar, you need to take out that sentry, and we can begin the assault."

"What? Oh, okay." Ingmar said, taken out of his daze. He pulled out his crossbow, and loaded a bolt. He lined up his sights, and, in a matter of seconds, let loose an Iron bolt, hurtling at hundreds of miles an hour at the man about 300 yards away.

It hit the man in the left eye, sending out a fountain of blood. Out of impulse, the man reached up to try to pull the arrow lodged in his cranium out, but it was no use. He was dead before he hit the wooden floor of his guard tower. He fell face first, pushing the arrow deeper into his head, until it popped out the other side.

"Bulls eye." Ingmar breathed, putting away his crossbow.

"Alright, let's move in!" Heimvar said, putting on his steel helmet. Odmi followed suit, putting on his horned helmet, drawing his sword.

'So, the time of reckoning is upon us, eh?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, let's hope you've gotten better at swinging that sword. For both of our sakes.' his brain said to him.'You and me both.'

* * *

AN: Well, there it is. So sorry for the long wait, I was feeling sick and couldn't really write. I made this chapter pretty long though, so... We even? We even. Alright. Battle scene coming up next! Stay tuned!

-LiE


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Finally! The combat is upon us! We can finally see if I'm any good at describing battles. Fingers crossed! Oh, and there isn't going to be much humor for the next few chapters. Just a warning, it gon' get gory.

* * *

Chapter 6: [Insert Cliche Battle Title] part 1

The team walked slowly into the fort, trying desperately to keep their presence unknown. However, while Luca was somewhat adept at being unseen, and X had the magical aptitude to use Invisibility, this was proving to be a futile task, as Pigg didn't seem to know anything about sneaking.

"Just bend your knees slightly! Gods, do it quickly!" X hissed. They were nearing a sentry, and his armor was attracting quite a bit of attention.

"Why don't you just hang back here? Your sneak seems to be miniscule." Luca whispered to Pigg.

Disappointed, yet internally relieved, Pigg agreed. He decided to just stop there and hide in a manger.

The duo successfully snuck past the sentry, who was still staring at place where Pigg was, and made their way to the bale of hay.

"You ready?" X said, turning his head to his wife.

She nodded, and said, "Let's raise Oblivion." She covered her ears for the oncoming blast.

X charged up a dual-cast Lightning Bolt, took careful aim at the bale of hay, and fired, shouting, "KAMEHAMEHA!"

The bale was instantly alight, and the shout had alerted the guards.

"What in Oblivion was that?" was the general cry of panic and confusion in the fortress yard, as a storm of arrows rained down, with near pinpoint accuracy. One man hit the ground, then another, then another. One after the other, at regular intervals of 5 seconds, each with an arrow lodged in their cranium.

"Yeah, what was that?" Luca inquired. "Was the shout really necessary?"

"But of course." was the reply, and with that, the duo split up and began decimating the inhabitants of the fortress.

Pigg stood up and ran (as fast as a tank could) to join the rest of his team. However, on the way, he ran into the sentry from before.

This man, who had been nearly deafened from the blast, was gazing around, seeing his friends falling around him.

Pigg walked up to him and unsheathed his ax. With a smile, he took aim. This was his first kill in a while. He was going to make it last. This man will suffer.

He swung with tremendous force downwards onto the man's arm at the shoulder. The limb was cleanly severed, and as a fountain of blood spewed forward, the man let out a bloodcurdling shriek.

Smiling as that familiar blood lust washed over him, Pigg raised his axe for another swing. Instead of going for the man's other arm,however, he swung low, slicing clean through the man's right femur and lodging itself halfway into the left. He fell onto his right side, pushing the axe deeper and deeper into his leg, until it too was severed.

The man's cries of pain eventually turned silent as he fell into shock. 'Hmmm... Better finish up quickly.' Pigg thought, sad that he couldn't toy with the man any further. But, he could also hear footsteps coming his way, obviously other soldiers attracted to the sound of the man yelling.

With a sigh, Pigg picked the man up and propped him up on his one good arm, and raised his axe for one final horizontal swing. But then, he heard the man speak.

He had a gruff voice, the voice of a man who had seen many battles before. He was stuttering, and his voice was barely audible.

"m-m-mercy..."

"There's no mercy where any of us are going, friend. Especially not you." Pigg said with a smile, and swung his axe, forever separating the man's head from his shoulders.

"Or you, either," he said, turning to face the five men behind him who had just watched their comrade be decapitated by this monstrous Orcish warrior. Needless to say, they were shocked and paralyzed.

"This'll be fun." Pigg said, raising his axe again.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fort, X was zapping people left and right. He had switched spells from his Lightning Bolt to Chain Lightning, as it was stronger and was better suited for large groups, of which he was seeing a lot of. The old fort had a lot of men in it, apparently.

"I'm chargin' mah laser!" he would shout whenever he encountered a large group. Before they would have time to react, he would shout "SHOOP-DA-WHOOP!" and let loose the fury of Chain Lightning among the group.

The lightning entered the foremost soldier's body, and coursed through it, frying the man's internal organs and sending a fatal bolt through his heart, stopping it. As the man, now fully dead, fell to the ground, the bolt of lightning shot from the fingers not two seconds ago, then leaves that man's body and travels onto the closest living being near him, in this case, the next soldier. The process repeats in her body, then the next soldier's, and so on, until the group of five soldiers are on the ground, dead, all in a matter of seconds. X would then make a gun out of his now smoking fingers, and blow away the smoke, smiling at the display. He then teleported to an area he thought might have more enemies, disappearing with a sharp crack, like a bullwhip.

Luca, however, was going a different route. Inside the fort itself, she was clearing out the rooms one by one, using stealth to her advantage.

She would open a room unseen, throw in a small explosive device designed to daze, and close the door. When she heard the quiet explosion, she would rush in and kill the occupants.

On this room, however, the door was locked. She had not prepared for this, so she had no Lockpicks.

"Damn..." she muttered to herself. "Now I have to bust it down."

She steeled herself, backed up a few steps to give herself a running start, and flew at the door, shoulder first.

The unreinforced wooden door splintered on the first hit. From within, the occupants, of which there were a male and female Nord, were, predictably, surprised. They, being within the fort, were unaware of the total war being waged outside.

"Talos, what was that?" one of them yelled.

"I don't kn-" was all the other occupant could say before the door exploded.

Splinters flew everywhere as Luca shattered the door with a well-placed shoulder bash. In one fluid motion, she unsheathed her sword and took the shield off of her back. She bent over, raised her shield over her head, and ran in the general direction of the two combatants.

She made a grazing blow with the male, and made full frontal contact with the woman. The man had a fractured hand and a dislocated shoulder, while the woman suffered broken ribs, a fractured femur, and, finally, a snapped neck. She was dead before she hit the ground. The man, however, was not so lucky.

After the Imperial woman saw the odd angle at which the Nord woman's neck was angled, she concluded that she was dead, and Luca moved onto the now moaning man.

She raised her short sword over her diamond-shaped shield, pointing it at the combatant on the ground. She slowly approached the man, never dropping her guard, as she was trained by her father. The man was swinging wildly with his sword equipped in his good hand, his eyes gripped closed in pure fear and pain.

Luca approached the floundering man and knocked away his sword with her shield into the fire pit across the room. When he realized his last hope for life was gone, he simply gave up and grew silent. She, sparing him no time for last words, swiftly stabbed him through his heart. Upon pulling her blade out of the man's chest, one final spurt of the vital liquid shot out. Luca wiped her blade, and began the ritual she did with each room she cleared: First, she would fix any kind of anomalies with the bodies, in this case, fixing the female's neck, making it look natural. Then, she would close their eyes, to remove any looks of shock they gave in their last moments. Finally, she would place them all next to each other, side by side, and say a few words.

After this process was complete, the squad leader headed out of the room, and began down the staircase to the next room.

Hunter was having his own... Well, not fun, but... Way of doing things. To him, whenever he took aim, it seemed that time slowed to a crawl. This was a trait that most Bosmer shared, but it was shown very well in Hunter.

Because he was running short on arrows, Hunter had decided to send Icarus back to the camp for more. That was a while ago, and Hunter was expecting his feathered friend back any minute

In the meantime, Hunter was sending volleys of his remaining arrows down upon the heads of his enemies. His archery segments were the only time he felt comfortable since his forced conscription into this Legion.

A thought popped into his head.

'I could easily kill these people now.'

He put down his bow in thought.

'I'd be free to leave'

He began considering it.

'It'd only take three shots'

But then his rational side kicked in.

He quickly dismissed these notions from his mind. Then he realized he had put down his bow.

He scrambled to pick it up, aware of what a catastrophic mistake this might be. If he let even one person out of the fortress, he'd be completely exposed. And defenseless.

He reached down to pick up his bow, but he heard a voice behind him that froze him in his tracks, and he felt the cold prick of a steel blade pressing into his flesh.

"Drop it, Elf. Turn around slowly and I won't kill you were you stand."

Silently cursing himself, Hunter turned around to face the voice.

Behind him was a steel blade, now pointed at his throat. Holding the blade was a soldier, decked out in a cuirass and a horned helmet.

The man gave a chuckle, and said, "Good boy. Now, hold still. It'll all be over soon."

The man raised his sword to the sky. The steel glimmered in the moonlight, as if it were made of stardust. The white sword contrasted heavily with the black background of the night sky. The stars glittering around it made the scene even more... Angelic, almost.

Hunter chuckled to himself, amused at how beautiful the scene of his death would be.

"What's so funny, Elf?"

"Just thinking."

"About what?"

*heh heh*

"Don't talk much, doya', Elf? Well, you sure won't after I'm done!"

The soldier raised his sword once more, to swing the blow that would sever the Elf from this world forever.

* * *

As Ingmar climbed the ladder into the guard tower, an alarm sounded. Obviously, someone had seen the man in the tower fall and had pulled some kind of alarm.

"Well, this is going to be a bit harder than we thought..." Heimvar said. "Oh well. A true Nord welcomes challenge!" he boomed, and let loose a hearty laugh. He unsheathed his giant Greatsword, almost as long as his body, and rushed inwards.

"Well, good luck in there." Lilly said, turning to Odmi.

"What? You mean, we aren't sticking together?" Odmi asked, surprised.

"Of course. If we split up, we could cover more ground. Kill more people, get out of here quicker," Lilly said. "You can handle yourself, right?"

"Ummm... Right." Odmi said, truly unsure. He, as it had been proven before, was almost inept with a sword. But, he wanted to prove himself to... Well, mostly to himself.

"Good. See you on the battlefield." Lilly said with a wink, and unsheathed two steel daggers. She darted forward with immense speed, a speed that Odmi hadn't seen before. She became something of a blur, and she disappeared behind a wall.

Odmi suddenly realized he should probably start in on the fort.

"Am I insane?"

'Well, let's see... You're talking to yourself... You're willingly walking into what will likely be a slaughter... Nope. You're completely sane.'

"Shut up, brain."

'Hey, don't shoot the messenger!'

Odmi shut out his inner voice and walked into the fortress.

Meanwhile, on the guard tower, Ingmar had finally reached the top. He pulled his arrow out of the soldier's head, and he pulled his quiver off of his back.

He pulled out a bottle of poison. A poison he concocted himself. It consisted of a petal of Nightshade, a single Canis Root, approximately three inches in length, and a single cap from an Imp Stool. Its basic effects involved weak cellular destruction for about five or ten seconds, but it also caused paralysis of the victims' muscles for about twenty seconds, trapping them in place, forcing them to suffer.

He pulled the cork off of the bottle and poured the contents into the quiver, effectively coating the arrows in the toxin.

After he was satisfied by the coverage, he pulled out an arrow, loaded it into his crossbow, and searched for an enemy. He had hundreds of arrows, so he could fire as much as he wanted without consequence. He quickly found a small group of enemies, around three people, took aim, and opened fire.

He hit the first soldier in the knee. The soldier barely had time to glance downwards at the wound before the poison took effect. His body instantly seized up, and he fell into a hay bale, stiff as a board, frozen in the exact position he was in.

Then, the toxin took effect. The effects were obvious, as the skin around the knee begin to... Dissolve. 'That's weird. Never done that before...' Ingmar thought to himself. 'Must have an allergy to one of the ingredients...'He quickly stopped caring and loaded in another bolt to take out his comrades. However, the two other soldiers had already left the area, and had walked outside of his range. He shrugged, and searched for other soldiers to fire upon.

Internally, the soldier was crying out, writhing in agony. However, the poison was preventing him from moving, or from even opening his mouth to alert his otherwise unaware comrades. His eyes were glued to the area of the arrow, watching his leg slowly dissolve before his eyes.

Already, the poison had eaten away the tissue from his knee, and was exposing bone. Every gust, a torrent of pain. At this point, the soldier could tell he was as good as dead. But then, suddenly, he could feel strength returning to his muscles. He felt the strains of the toxin slipping away, and he struggled to stand. As soon as he did, he shouted, "LOKIR! SAADIA! LOOK OU-!"

Ingmar, who had become preoccupied looking for another person to kill, heard this sudden outburst and fired his previously loaded bolt into the man's cranium, cutting him off mid sentence

Two other people, presumably Saadia and Lokir, showed up, and looked aghast at the sight of their fallen comrade.

A smile formed behind a mask. 'Good. More lambs for the slaughter.'

From within the fort's eastern end of the courtyard, Heimvar was obliterating his enemies. His immense size attracted quite a bit of attention, and as such, there were quite a bit of dead bodies in his wake, some missing a limb of some sort, some having deep gashes, and, in some cases, some being cleaved completely in two.

He turned his attention to the approaching horde of enemies. There were at least ten of them, each one approaching at a relatively quick pace. Obviously, they had either not seen the destruction left in the wake of this human tank, or they were foolhardy enough to not care. It didn't matter to Heimvar. A fight was a fight.

His smile grew wider as they unsheathed their weapons. 'So they intend to put up a challenge?' he thought. 'This'll be fun.'

Heimvar bellowed out a war cry that, in itself, scared off about five of the troops. This was a usual occurrence, and Heimvar would easily catch up to them later.

Heimvar unsheathed his Claymore, and rushed towards them. He swung with great skill, with the strength of a madman, but with the accuracy of an expert. Swordplay was Heimvar's domain.

The group quickly enveloped him, surrounding him on all sides. This just made things easier for Heimvar.

Right slash- a head rolled off of someone's shoulders.

Left stab- his sword pierced leather.

His enemies attempted to hit him, to cause some sort of damage, but it was in vain; the thick Steel Armor that Heimvar wore absorbed all.

But then, Heimvar felt something. A dent in his armor.

He whipped around, and saw the perpetrator; a small Argonian, with steel mace. The lizard was swinging wildly, but without precision. Obviously, he was intimidated. But, he had quite an arm to him.

Not anymore. A single downwards slash fixed that.

The mace dropped to the ground with a clang. Blood cascaded from the stump where the lizard's green arm used to be. He looked down in sheer horror at the shining red stump. His face muscles contracted to the closest thing an Argonian can show to fear. This didn't last long, as Heimvar's next swing lopped off his head. As a rule, Heimvar didn't like to see his enemies suffer.

From behind him now, Heimvar could feel what felt like little needles pricking into him.

He spun in a tight circle, as if he were a small tornado, and cut deeply into the enemies. Blood gushed from the newly opened wounds, and, eager to finish off his enemies, Heimvar stopped spinning and turned to look at the two enemies that remained.

The Imperial on the left with a War Axe had multiple deep gashes down his abdomen, any of them fatal in themselves. The Khajiit on the right, however, with a sword still in his hand, was still standing, and, although he was panting and obviously in pain, looked like he still wanted to put up a fight, even though he had a deep gash in his face going through his left eye

Heimvar took pity on the cat and put him out of his misery. He stabbed him through the heart, saying to the cat in its dying moments, "I'm sorry it had to end like this. You're pretty damn tough, cat or not," to which the Khajiit spluttered, with an ironic smirk on his face, "Urgh... Thank... You. Do... Me a favor? Clean the blood out of my fur. Best... Best to look good for... The family."

With that, the Khajiit gasped out his final breath, and left Tamriel for eternity. Heimvar, saddened by his current inability to fulfill a warrior's final wish, carried on his way to engage other enemies.

However, Odmi, having only recently entered the fort, was greeted by a... Horrendous sight.

Blood was strewn all across the battlefield, soaking into the ground, painting the walls, and marking the trails of men's final struggles to cling to life.

The screams coming from the eastern courtyard were... Unsettling, to say the least. Odmi decided to stay far away from there. Instead, he decided to work outside, along the walls, and work his way inside, where twas sa- err, I mean, where he could be the most help.

He edged his way along the fortress' western wall, slowly scooting closer and closer towards the door that would lead inside.

Closer and closer he edged, knowing with every step he might be spotted. He wasn't ready for combat... No, not yet. If this is what combat was like... He would never be ready.

'Come now. That's idiotic.'

"What in Oblivion are you talking about, brain?"

'Well, I'm just saying, that's an illogical way of thinking.'

"How so?" Odmi said, his voice barely a whisper.

'You'll warm up to it eventually. Everyone does.'

"What... How would you know that?" Odmi asked, slightly confused.

'Oops. I've said too much. Carry on.'

From the temporal realm, Sheogarath closed his connectionto the mind of this petty soldier and carried on his merry way plaguing the east wing of the Blue Palace.

Odmi thought about what his mind had said. It was true, to an extent. It was probable that everyone had their reservations about killing at first. But, if he wanted to live, he would have to overcome these reservations. He decided then and there, that, if it came to it, he would try to have the strength to deal that finishing blow.

Miraculously, Odmi reached the door without attracting any attention to himself. He slipped inside the fort...

And promptly met face to face with a wizard.

Outside, Lilly was eviscerating the opposition. Wielding two daggers, she was unleashing a flurry of blows upon anyone unfortunate enough to cross her path. However, there were no soldiers in sight, so she was taking a short break.

At the moment, she was cleaning the blood off of her blades.

"Can't let that stay there. Blood does a number to steel..." she said to herself, pulling out the same rag she always carried with her. She had been sure to keep a rag on her to clean her blades ever since... Well, ever since her old blades shattered in combat.

They had become rusted, and they had become fragile without her taking notice. She used them in combat a few months prior, and they fell apart while she was in mid-attack. Some quick thinking on Heimvar's part was all that saved her that day, but she didn't come out of there without a few injuries. Injuries that had stuck with her.

Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to get her to a healer before The damage had set in, and none of them had any healing potions. As such, when they reached the healer, even with Restoration magic, scars would remain. And they did, but Lilly did her best to hide them. Her gauntlets were slightly longer than the average ones, to cover the scars on her arms. She grew her hair out longer than a soldier's should be to hide the scars on the back of her head. But, she was lucky. Had they gotten her to the healer back at camp any later, she would have likely died.

Because of this... Ordeal, she always kept her rag on her, as well as a good stock of healing potions. She never wanted to risk that again.

As she was finishing up cleaning her blade, she noticed Odmi inching his way across the wall. It didn't seem that he had seen her yet, and she thought about calling out to him, but he soon slipped behind a door. She decided that it would be better to let him clear out the fort. 'There's something... Odd, about him. Not bad, just... Odd,' Lilly thought.

She finished up cleaning up her blades, but then she heard, "LOKIR! SAADIA! LOOK OU-" coming from the front gate. She leapt up, and rushed to the wall, taking cover, her reactions heightened by her years of scouting.

She quickly and silently made her way to the disturbance. She intended to get the jump on these "Lokir" and "Saadia" fellows.

She crept up towards the two, one a Nord like herself, and the other a Redguard. She executed a silent forward roll and grabbed the Nord man on the left. She covered his mouth with one hand and stabbed him in the chest repeatedly with the other hand, which held a dagger, quickly dragging him backwards. He tried in vain to struggle, but it was no use. The moment Lillith's dagger pierced his heart, his life's spark was extinguished. The other stabs were merely overkill, just to be sure.

Unfortunately, she apparently made some sort of noise, and the Redguard woman turned around to see her comrade being stabbed repeatedly in the heart. Needless to say, she seemed... Upset. She raised her sword to strike, and...

She was immediately shot in the head with an iron bolt. The impact sent her flying into the wall, pinned next to her comrade in the hay bale

Lilly smiled and looked up at Ingmar, and gave him a short two-fingered mini-salute, to which he replied with one of his own. With that, she pulled out her rag and began cleaning her blade again. Ingmar, on the other hand, turned his attention to the eastern end, where most of the action was, and started paying attention to the archers. He loaded another bolt, and began his business.

* * *

AN: Well, that's part one... and we have learned some... Interesting facts about some of our characters. Hope you liked it!I'm trying my hand at a few cliffhangers, and a tad bit of foreshadowing. Who would have thought that the Daedric Lord of Madness, Sheogarath himself would have decided to talk to our little Odmi? I'll tell you who; the author. And on that bombshell, I take my leave. Goodnight!  
-LiE


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Heyoo! Whelp, here's the thrilling (?) next part of the first battle. Enjoy...

* * *

Chapter 7: [Insert Cliche Battle Title]-part 2

* * *

Hunter gazed up at the Twin Moons, trying to face his death with a bit of courage.

However, as the Stormcloak was about to deal the first and final blow, a sharp cry pierced the night, causing the soldier to falter.

In the distance, Hunter saw what looked like the expanding silhouette of... A hawk? Some type of bird... That was headed this way. It had something in its talons.

Arrows.

The Stormcloak turned around to see what had emitted the shriek from earlier. He saw it as a steadily approaching hawk, and started to yell.

"What in Oblivion is-AGHHH!" he started, but never finished. Icarus had dropped the arrows and had landed on the man's shoulder, forcing his scythe-like talons deep into his arm.

Icarus let out another shriek, and drove his beak into the man's unprotected eyes. The man let out a screech of pure agony, and it appeared that Icarus was... Stuck? Yes, stuck in the man's right eye socket. Hunter knew not to get in the way of his bird of prey. It knew what it was doing.

The bird gave a few small twitches, then began jerking his head backwards, trying to free himself. This elicited more desperate cries from the man, who was still very much alive and obviously in immense pain.

Finally, Icarus gave one final jerk, and, with a slick *pop*, the organ was removed from the socket. A fountain of blood spurted from the now open socket, and the man, still conscious, instinctively reached up a hand to try to... Alleviate pain? Stop the bleeding? Who knows what was going through this man's mind...

In any case, Icarus cared not about the man's thoughts. He flew up (taking a chunk of flesh with him, as he had not released his death grip on the soldier's shoulder yet), and circled around the soldier, landing on his other shoulder, yet again plunging his talons into the man's shoulder. The man, now on the brink of death by blood loss, barely let out a whimper as the hawk plunged its head into his other eye.

Hunter simply stood there, watching Icarus. Head never acted like this. It almost seemed that the bird was toying with his prey. If he wanted, he could have easily pulled out the man's jugular vein with his talons. No, this seemed... More personal, almost. Perhaps the bird had seen it's friend being attacked, and flew into a rage. Perhaps it wished to see the man suffer.

Well, Hunter did not want to see this. Sure, he was used to seeing blood on a hunting trip, but this would have been too much for anybody.

Swiftly, he picked up one of the arrows Icarus had carelessly dropped ('I thought I taught him better...) and stabbed the man through the throat.

The man attempted to gasp for air as his airways were severed, somehow forgetting about his recent blinding at the hands (or beak) of a bird. Soon,however, he fell to his knees, and hit the ground, dead.

Hunter picked up the body and dragged it into the forested region behind him, Icarus in tow. He began to scold the bird, but it gave him such an affectionate look, even with blood on its beak and talons, that Hunter soon forgave him. After all, this was his lifelong friend. How could he stay mad?

Meanwhile, Pigg, having recently raised his ax in preparation for a new assault, heard it; a strange call, coming from the east. It sounded like a hawk, but he couldn't be sure. In any case, he didn't even care.

He looked in front of him, at the five soldiers still in awe of the hulking Orc. Pigg smiled, and let out a bestial roar.

Within, something in Pigg clicked. He began pumping massive amounts of an adrenaline-like hormone found within the majority of Orcs that turned his attacks into a frenzy. The Beserker Rage took control, and Pigg darted forward.

He caught the first soldier, a female Nord by the looks of her, off guard, stabbing through the breastplate with the spike on his ax. As he pulled it out, a small fountain of blood spurted forward, and he stabbed again, this time in her unprotected face. He stabbed through the forehead, going for an immediate kill blow After all, Beserker Rage didn't last too long in the heat of battle.

The spike tip pierced her brain, and she fell unto the ax, dead. Pigg shook her off of the weapon, and went on to the next person.

By now, the soldiers were not in shock, and they had quickly unsheathed their weapons, each holding either a war ax or a steel sword. They began hacking away at Pigg, but the Beserker Rage had hardened his skin immensely, giving him near super-human defenses. At most, the blows served as a mere distraction. He turned to look at the "enemies" (in reality, Pigg saw them as his playthings).His mere gaze caused a few of them to stop attacking, but one continued the futile assault. 'He's next', Pigg decided.

Pigg raised his ax high above his head, then cleaved downwards, splitting the man down the middle. The ax got caught in the man's abdomen, so Pigg put his foot against the man's chest and pulled.

The ax slipped out with a *schlick* and the man keeled over. The cut was surprisingly clean, straight down the middle. In fact, it almost seemed that you could find this picture in a health class diagram, albeit a morbidly accurate one. You could see the various layers of muscle, skin, bones,and whatnot in the man's upper body. Pigg had no time to gawk, though. His toys were running away.

He darted forward, in pursuit.

X, however, was not so enthusiastic. He was running somewhat short on magicka. Even though he had very large wells of it, everyone had limits. And Chain Lightning took quite a bit of magicka, never mind teleporting everywhere.

X had to take a little rest. After teleporting away from the charred remains of the third group of enemies, he stopped by a rock. He plopped down, in the midst of what could be decribed easily as hell, and pulled out a flask.

This was no ordinary flask, though. It contained a very potent magicka potion. One with enough charge to kill him if he wasn't completely drained.

As such, he decided to summon a few sparks into his left hand, and play with them for a while. With his right hand, he conjured his own personal Familiar, a ghostly pig. Yes, a pig.

It stood at about waist height, but on X, that wasn't saying much. Near anything came up as tall compared to the 5 foot 2 inch hybrid.

The pig looked around, and saw X. It looked happy, and bounded over to him. X opened his arms into a hug, then, as the pig flew into his arms, he let loose his Sparks spell.

The pig was instantly defeated, and it disappeared The weak thing never really learned, or perhaps it chose to be that stupid, if it meant serving its master. In any case, X was now drained of magicka, making it safe to swallow the contents of the flask.

He took a small sip, as that was necessary The liquid had a strong minty taste, and immediately, X felt the effects.

A charge flowed through his body, and, even though it was not his first time using the brew, it still sent shocks all over his body.

He knew he couldn't hope to move for at least a minute or two after ingesting the potion, but he thought he was in a safe, secluded position.

Then he heard running footsteps.

On the inside of the fortress, Luca was just about finished clearing rooms on the upper floors, and had headed down below ground

The first thing she noticed was the poor lighting. "You'd think with the fort, they could afford some torches..." Luca thought out loud. She turned a corner, and was face to face with...

A corridor. But the corridor was lined with suits of armor, stretching down to the end of the hall. At the end of the hall, she could barely make out a door.

She decided to head down the corridor, against her better judgment Even though she was trained to not trust corridors (prime opportunities for enemies to sneak up on her), she knew she had to clear out the fort from the inside. It was her one job.

"I don't trust this... I don't trust any of you!" she shouted at the suits of armor the adorned the walls. She had a mild phobia of suits of armor, of all things, and she had it in her head that they followed her.

She thought she heard rustling from within one of the suits, and she whipped around to face it. She threw her short sword at it, and the head of it fell off, startling her. She decided she would just sprint to the end door.

She reached it, and flung it open.

She almost wished she didn't.

Inside the room, almost completely filled, top to bottom, were...

Barrels.

But, in the back, there was a shelf, with a small gold gleam emanating from it. It was too big to be a septim, but she was too busy (and freaked out) to be greedy. It was most likely a worthless trophy, anyway.

She thoroughly checked the room, and having flung every barrel in the room aside searching for combatants, she was convinced the room was clear, meaning the fort was clear.

She turned to open the door. But, when she opened it, she was face to face with a suit of armor. There were three of them, blocking the doorway.

Luca screamed in terror, slammed the door, and curled up into the fetal position against the corner, by the shelf in the back. Silently, she sobbed. She had never been so startled in her life, and there was no way in Oblivion she was trying the door again.

She would stay here. She was not going to move for anything.

* * *

Odmi stared face to face with the sorcerer. He was frozen with fear, unable to move as the wizard raised his hand.

A chill swept through the air, as a light blue swirl formed in the man's hand, seemingly from thin air. From his days on the streets with X, Odmi recognized this to be a Frost spell of some sort. From this, the Nord became more scared. He was... Well, he knew that Frost spells hurt in their own way.

He knew that, in most cases, Lightning spells caused nerve damage, and in most cases, it only hurt for the split second of contact. They were the most likely to kill, but they kill quickly. Fire spells hurt the worst, but after a short time they went away. Sure, they were hot, and sure they left burn wounds, but they usually heal very quickly, and best of all, they didn't impede movement or anything of that sort.

Frost spells, however, were quite possibly the worst. They gave moderate to high pain depending upon the spell used, they had very lasting effects, they, out of all spells, left the largest wounds, and they impeded your movement. The worst possible spell had to be Icy Spear. It basically hurled a... Well, a spire of frozen moisture, pulled straight from an unknown source (either the air, or possibly the caster themselves). Basically, an Icy Spear.

And Icy Spears hurt. If cast correctly, they could easily go straight through a body, but most wizards, in order to conserve Magicka, cast it relatively weakly, making it jam itself halfway through the victim. This in itself poses a very terrible complication in itself,as, when it hits a limb, it stops the flow of blood through that limb, and, no matter where it hits, it begins freezing the blood and destroying the cells within the body. Worse yet, after a set amount of time, it creates a small explosion and disappears immediately, creating a massive hole wherever it happened to hit.

'Well, let's hope he doesn't hit you somewhere important,' his mind said to him.

'No. I'm not going out like this,' Odmi thought to him The Nord steeled himself and drew his sword, prepared to strike. He assumed a battle position and began approaching the wizard who was still charging his spell. Either he was taking his sweet time charging, he was aiming, or he intended to cast the spell at full power.

However, when the wizard noticed that Odmi was indeed approaching him, he released the spell.

The wizard was a good 20 feet away at the time of casting, and Odmi's adrenaline rush seemed to slow time to a crawl, which gave Odmi some time to realize what was happening, and to react accordingly.

He could see a spire being ejected from the man's hand. From this he deduced that the spell was either a weakly-cast Icy Spear, or an overpowered Ice Spike. Either way, this was gonna hurt, and he had to block it somehow.

'Wait... Block! That's it!'

Odmi raised his left arm to block the spear. He grinned at his quick reflexes, then noticed something. Something... Odd.

He was never issued a shield.

"Oh, shi-" Odmi started saying, frowning at this realization

Time resumed normal pace and the spire of ice lodged into his right shoulder.

Odmi issued a cry of agony as pain seared through his arm, rippling from the point of impact. Odmi began falling, falling, falling... And he hit the ground, shattering the spike inside of his arm, causing shards to lodge themselves deeper into his arm, causing another cry of pain from Odmi, who somehow managed to hold onto his sword with a very loose grip.

"Damn. I'll have to work on my aim better later..." the wizard muttered to himself as he approached the fallen Nord.

Odmi began to panic. 'Oh no... No... No no no no no no... I gotta do something...'

'Holdup your sword.' Odmi's "Inner Voice" said to him. 'What have you got to lose at this point?'

Odmi, having nothing left to lose, complied. Using the last of his strength, he held up his sword, tip pointing up.

"What's this? The 'warrior' has some fight left in him?" the wizard laughed.

The wizard took another step closer, now only a few feet away. Then, the unimaginable happened.

He tripped.

The wizard tripped over his robe.

He let out a shriek during his fall and landed...

Directly on the tip of Odmi's sword. It pierced the man's throat, silencing him.

Odmi smiled at the intelligence he assumed was his own as he stared at his former assaulter.

That's when the spire exploded within his arm.

Outside the fortress, Lilly was cleaning off her daggers. She was, as always, careful to completely clean the blade, while also being careful not to cut herself.

Suddenly, she heard something. It sounded like a cry of pain coming from the fortress. It sounded like...

Odmi.

She dropped her daggers as she turned towards the sound. Reacting on reflexes, she bolted towards the doorway that led into the fort.

Through a hole in the wooden door, she could see the scene unfolding inside. She could see a mage, who appeared to be a master level mage judging by his robes. And, on the ground, writhing in pain with an Ice Spike sticking out of his shoulder, was Odmi.

She almost rushed in, but caught herself. She had almost forgotten that she had, in her haste, dropped her daggers. Cursing herself for her idiocy, she could only watch in horror as the bearded man approached Odmi.

Then, Odmi, out of the blue, raises his sword. He had used what was obviously the last of his strength to do this, and it was... Odd to Lilly, to say the least.

That's when the man tripped and fell onto the sword.

Lilly smiled at Odmi's ingenuity (or possibly luck). That kind of quick thinking was what separated boys from soldiers.

She quickly remembered what was happening when Odmi let out another cry as the spire exploded. Without missing a beat, she threw open the door and rushed over to Odmi.

Back on the eastern end of the courtyard, Heimvar was running out of enemies.

He had recently finished eviscerating a squadron, and was having a hard time finding any opposition.

"Hmph. I guess everyone's... Taken care of," he said. Suddenly, he remembered something. The Khajiit warrior.

He decided that since there appeared to be no one left on this end of the fortress courtyard, he might as well fulfill the man's last request.

Heimvar headed back through the sea of bodies, and he felt... A twinge of remorse? That's odd... He hadn't felt this since the Great War. Perhaps it was what he was prepared to do that was setting this off.

He had done something similar to this when he was captured in the Great War. He was... Well, he didn't quite remember what it was he was doing. Just that he was granting a final wish when the Dominion captured him. 'Funny, how my memory escapes me. I'm getting old... Not much life left in me...' Heimvar thought. "Well, just as much reason to keep doing what I'm doing, then!" he laughed, which died into a chuckle, which died into silence.

'What have I done with my life? All my days, spent dealing death... I could have done so much more... I could have written books, I could have stayed with ma and da on the farm...' he thought. 'And the families I must have destroyed... I've spent my days as no more than a tool, a dog of the military.'

"Well, that's in the past now. Not much I can do for it now..." he said, his voice a whisper. He saw that he had arrived at the corpse of the cat, and he took out his canteen.

Inscribed onto his canteen were small tally marks. Each time a comrade fell around him, he'd add another. As of current, there were 357 tallies. The canteen was running out of room, and he'd have to get a new one if he wanted to keep up the tradition.

He uncorked it and began pouring water over the warrior's fur, cleaning him. He became engrossed in the act, scrubbing diligently

This man had reminded him of someone. He couldn't quite place his finger on the name, but he knew something besides that.

He reminded him of number 37. A fighter, that one. Never gave up a fight, and he always talked about his family. He wasn't a Khajiit, though. Some type of human, probably a Nord. Killed in a massive inferno. His last words were quite like the Khajiit's, asking to"clean me up for the family,".

Holding back tears, Heimvar re-corked the bottle, finished. He turned around, and stared face to face with a soldier, if that

The boy looked like he was 14 at the oldest, barely able to lift his sword. He had obviously seen what had just happened, and was struck by the scene. An enemy... Cleaning a fallen foe? Absurd...

Heimvar, with a very heavy heart, knew what he had to do.

"Wipe them out..." he said to himself, repeating his commander's orders. He raised his sword, and closed his eyes.

He swung, and he heard a clang as the boy released his sword.

Meanwhile, on the guard tower, Ingmar was about to open fire upon the archers stationed on the walls surrounding the fort.

He had already taken out the far archers without being seen by the closest ones. It was a habit of his, to take out the hardest shots first before moving on to the closer ones. This, however, led to cockiness in most cases.

He loaded a bolt into his crossbow and began searching for a prime target. He saw one that was looking around for anyone, who seemed to be in a panic having been separated from his squad.

'Easy pickings...' Ingmar thought as he took aim.

He fired, and he hit the soldier in back of the neck, causing him to topple over the wall into the courtyard below.

However, as soon as he did so, three other archers popped out from behind a nearby wall and opened fire on him. He ducked down immediately, barely dodging the arrows.

'Shit, a trap...' Ingmar thought. He loaded another bolt into the crossbow, and stuck it over the wall.

Blindly, he "positioned" it in the general direction that the arrows were flying from and fired. The arrows didn't let up.

He loaded in another, and repeated the process. This time, he heard a grunt of pain.

'Odd... They're too far for me to hear them...' he thought, then it dawned on him.

They were moving towards him.

The arrows had ceased, and the soldiers were presumably tending the wounded soldier.

Ingmar peeked over the wall, and was terrified by what he saw. The two remaining archers had been approaching indeed. They were now on the opposites ledge, nearing stairs. They had concluded that their comrade was dead, and began heading down the stairs, having not seen Ingmar.

Quickly, Ingmar reached down for another bolt to take advantage of this moment.

Too quickly. He pricked his finger on one of his bolts when he reached down.

"Oh fu-" was all he could utter before he collapsed, paralyzed.

The toxin started kicking in, causing mild pain, but Ingmar was more afraid than anything. The archers were approaching, and he was paralyzed. He was as good as dead if they came before the poison wore off.

* * *

AN: Huh. Not as thrilling as you probably expected, but, eh. Feels might have made up for it. Whatchu gon' do 'bout it, son?  
-LiE


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Okay, here I am. So very sorry about the delay, but… Well, school has been making me quite busy. Add that to the fact that my editor and I do not share a schedule, and you get a chapter that is uploaded about a week after it is promised. So very sorry. I'm sorry… Welp, here be the final installment of the first battle. Oh, wait, I forgot... SPOILER ALERT.

* * *

Chapter 8: [Insert Cliché Battle Title] part 3

* * *

X lay paralyzed on the ground, both from the effects of the potion and from fear. The footsteps were growing ever closer, ever louder, encroaching upon his position.

He was... Unpleasantly surprised. He had picked this area because it was seemingly devoid of life, the only danger present being the ever-present flames that licked the surrounding walls and surfaces. He had hoped that no one was still alive to find him. Indeed, the only reason he had even considered drinking the flask was because it was always a good idea to have some kind of defense, in case he was wrong about the place being devoid of life.

He also banked on the fact that this place was, by all means, a dead end. Walls (which were, in turn, coated with flame) surrounded him on all sides, and there were no doors or windows around him. Only a fool or a new recruit would run here.

He could hear voices approaching, and the soldiers came into view.

"Oh shit... A dead end!"

"That means we're dead!"

"Oh Gods, I only signed on last week! I don't want to die here..."

Internally, X face palmed. For one thing, these people truly were new recruits (at least one was, the others were probably fools), and for another, he was actually afraid of these people! They wouldn't do anything to him! He was paralyzed; they probably would think he was dead, he realized. And, even if they didn't, they sounded so scared that...

'Wait.' Realization dawned on X. 'They were scared... What were they scared about? And it seems that they were... Running from something? What could it be? Sabrecats? Dragons?'

"Oh, Mother Mara, here it comes!"

X's thoughts were cut short by the scream of one of the soldiers. He pointed a gloved finger off into the distance, at what seemed to be a humanoid of some kind...

Just then, it... Not disappeared, per say, more... It just... Evaporated.

The figure had become a blur. It became near invisible, with only a small glint of steel being reflected from the twin moons.

'Wait... Steel?' X thought. A single name slipped through his mind. 'If I could just... Get a better look at it...' he thought.

Just then, the soldier who had screamed earlier was sliced in half horizontally. The man's body was cleanly separated from a line just below the pectoral muscle. A terrified look was frozen on the man's face, frozen in the position it was in when he noticed the attacker in the distance, unable to react in time before he (or it)... Flashed, to him. A stream of blood seemed to be suspended in mid-air as time seemed to slow momentarily as X focused to get a good look at the attacker.

He noticed the face of the attacker, through the front of its steel helmet. It's green face, with upward-jutting tusk-like teeth.

There was no one else it could be. It had to be...

'Pigg?' X thought as time resumed to normal.

The man's cleanly severed body-halves obeyed the law of gravity finally and fell to the ground. As it did, a shriek erupted from one of the other soldiers, as he too was sliced in half, this time vertically, from an upwards swipe. Straight up the center, from his groin to the crown of his head, his body was cleanly severed. As with many other victims that fell prey to Pigg, the cut was remarkably clean, and what remained could be mistaken for a medical display of a humanoid's anatomy.

X stared on in awe as Pigg, overtaken by what was the most powerful case of Berserker Rage he'd ever heard of, approached the final man, who had taken to hiding up against the nearby wall. The flames on the wall seemed to engulf him, but they didn't seem to harm him, for whatever reason. X chalked it up to a mistake by the Gods, a "glitch in the system", if you will.

X also felt something else: He was beginning to regain some control over his body. 'Good... That was quicker than usual... I must be getting used to it.' he thought. He still didn't have much of any control, but at least now he could move his eyes. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the soldier huddled against the wall. Pigg was staring at him, and then, suddenly, he disappeared. He reappeared directly in front of the man, who was now openly sobbing from fright.

With an unusually deep voice, Pigg boomed, "THERE IS NO ESCAPE," as he swung his axe into the man's throat. The axe went clean through and stuck itself in the wall. Pigg put his boot up against the wall and pulled, pulling it free, and along with the axe came the man's head. Blood spurted up from the open wound, as if it were a fountain.

X felt himself gain more control of his body, and felt himself able to control his limbs ever so slightly. 'A good improvement,' he thought, seeing as how Orcs tended to lose most control of their bodies as they went into Berserker Rage. It would be a good thing if he could... But... No, even a Stun Spell wouldn't work... Pigg was too high a level for any Illusion spells... Reassessing the situation, staying still would probably be the best course of action.

Unfortunately, the Gods had different plans for this hybrid. As soon as he finished the thought, a blue aura enveloped him, signaling that he had regenerated magicka. Just then. At THE most inopportune time. Pigg, of course, took notice of this, and turned X's way.

As X was silently cursing the Gods, Pigg began walking over to him, a bestial smile on his face. He approached the grounded hybrid, and raised his axe high above his head.

Meanwhile, on the overlooking cliff, Hunter lay, bored nearly to tears. There hadn't been any activity in the fortress (at least, any that he could see), and he had been lounging about with Icarus.

"Hey, boy," Hunter said at last, looking at Icarus. The hawk replied, well, like a hawk would. He screeched like a hawk, but somehow, the sounds came out as intelligible words. Words that the author could not hope to understand, but words that Hunter, as a Bosmer, could understand fluently. The author does not pretend to understand why this is, for he does not care enough to research the matter, but he guesses it has something to do with the Dwemer, Dragons, and Elder Scrolls.

"Thank you for saving me," Hunter said, looking over at his fine feathered friend.

*shriek* replied Icarus.

Hunter leaned over and embraced the bird, and said, "We can't do this anymore."

*Inquisitive look* replied the Icarus.

With a sad sigh, the Bosmer said, "I'm breaking up with you."

The hawk, being unable to experience human emotions such as love due to his avian nature, merely hopped away from his owner, in search of some sort of food, because he is, after all, just a hawk.

"He's devastated," Hunter said with a twinge of melancholy in his voice as he looked towards the bird, who had found a mouse and was proceeding to attack it.

"Devastated."

Back on the ground, X feared for his life. In his current state, he was defenseless, but he had seen what that axe had done to armored opponents. He was only wearing robes, and while stylish, they offered little to no protection. They'd be cut in two, just like that.

Suddenly, Pig seized up. His face contorted, and his neck bent at an odd angle. He dropped his axe behind him, and fell to his side, presumably asleep, or knocked unconscious by an internal force. At this time, X felt his body relax, and he had regained full control.

"What a convenient turn of events..." X said to himself, standing up and dusting himself off. He had made his peace right there, and was prepared to die.

"Good thing, too. I haven't saved in hours," he said to no one in particular, grasping Pigg's hand with his super-human strength, and assigning Teleport to the other.

"The courtyard seems clear... Better check up on my waifu," X said, teleporting inside of the fortress.

X reached the inside of the fortress and just about keeled over from exhaustion. "Transporting two people is hard work!" he said, again to no one in particular. He was greeted by numerous closed doors. Instead of opening each door, X simply cast a simple Detect Life spell...

And came up with nothing, save for himself and Pigg next to him. And... And an aura down below on the bottom floor.

"Whelp, that's probably her," X muttered to himself. "Can't imagine why she isn't moving... Well, the rest of the place is lifeless, so I might as well head down to get her." And with that, X grabbed Pigg by the arm and started down the steps.

As X traversed the steps with no regard for his cargo, thoughts crossed his mind.

'Why can't I shower?' he thought, as he dragged Pigg's body down the stairs.

'Do I really need sleep?' he pondered, still dragging the Orc nonchalantly.

'What's the point in eating?' he questioned, almost as if he were trying to bang Pigg's head on each step.

'Why are horses of all things exempt from physics?' he philosophized, remembering with a smile his childhood pony, Pinkie, flying at him at full gallop, upside down, from underwater.

Eventually, he reached his wife. She lay on the ground in front of a closet door, spread eagle. There was a slight splatter of blood on the frame, and a small cut on her forehead. X put two and four together, and assumed that his wife had been knocked unconscious when she ran into the door frame.

X did the only thing he could think of: he summoned his familiar to do the thinking for him.

The ghostly blue pig appeared and began merrily dancing around the body of Luca, softly squealing.

Inside Luca's head, she had escaped the room, and was now running into another room. She threw open the door, and bolted inside, closing the door behind her. As she turned around, panting, a rotting pig dropped from the sky. It stood up and looked at her, and began to slowly open its maw. From within the corpse's throat, a single statement emerged:

"I'm pumped."

Suddenly, the pig broke into a frantic dance, and began wildly flailing its limbs this way and that, all the while chanting its mantra of "I'M PUMPED!" at near deafening volumes.

Suddenly, the pig flew at the door, smashing it. Everything grew dark, and Luca slowly returned to the real world.

X stood at a 90 degree angle over his wife, who suddenly bolted up, shouting, and "I know you're pumped!" She looked around her, and noticed her husband, whom she had subsequently knocked over as she had returned to the real world.

Immediately, she burst over to him, embracing him in a tight hug.

"Oh, X, it was awful!"

"Okay, honey, but-"

"There was this... Thing! A thing without a bottom jaw! Chasing me-"

"Okay, honey, but-"

"And there was this voice I couldn't locate, telling me to "Become a Bro" whatever in Oblivion that means, and he kept saying we had to go find "Stephano", whoever that is, and-"

"Honey, it's-"

"But worst of all, there were..." She paused for a moment. "TELEPORTING NAKED GUYS!"

"Luca! It was just a dream!" X finally managed to get out, shaking his wife out of her panicked state. "You were just unconscious. None of it was real."

"Really?" Luca replied.

"Yes. Really."

"But... It was so awesome! Terrifying, but awesome..." she muttered, dismayed that her adventure was not, in fact, real. X, smiling at his wife, replied, "Yes. Now, help me drag this dead weight up the stairs. I pulled him down here, now it's your turn."

"But, what about him?" Luca asked, more concerned about her fallen comrade than herself at the moment.

"Oh, he just fell asleep. Don't worry about him," X replied.

"And the fort?" Luca asked.

"Already cleared out. Well, done, I must say. Thorough. Not even a mouse left alive in here. My little slaughterer," X said ending with a smile, poking her nose softly and teasingly, to which she replied with a quick kiss.

"Alright. I'll get this one if you get Mr. Silent up there."

"What? Oh, Gods, I completely forgot about Hunter! I hope he's not dead." X said with a faux concerned look on his face, and with the crack of a whip, he disappeared, leaving the Imperial to hoist the Orc onto her back. After doing so, she began the surprisingly easy task of climbing the steps.

X however, came across a weeping Hunter. He approached the Elf, and asked, "What happened?"

The Bosmer looked at the hybrid and merely replied, "Love."

As if on cue, Icarus flew by and landed on Hunter's shoulder, mouse in beak, looking content with it. This, of course, upset Hunter more, but at this point, X decided to back off, thinking 'This is a little too weird, even for me.'

"Ummm... Okay... Well, invasion's over. Soooo... Yeah. Ummm... Come on down whenever you're... Ready, I guess..."

With that, X disappeared with a whip crack, leaving the Bosmer to make the trek down the cliff with his former love in tow.

By the time Hunter had reached the gates, X was already there (of course), and Luca was fast approaching the gate. No easy task, what with a larger than average Orsimer on her back.

When she arrived, she noticed Hunter's saddened look, and began to say something, but was stopped by X. With a deathly look on his face, he grabbed her arm and shook his head no, whispering in her ear, "Let this one slide."

She took his cue, and the three (or five, if you count feathered companions and KOed ones, too) set off to return to camp. Hopefully, they'd return by sunrise, but time had a way of slipping by in Skyrim.

* * *

Ingmar lay there, paralyzed, while the poison slowly ate away at his finger. While the pain was minor, the fear was major. He could hear the soldiers approaching, ever closer. His heartbeat quickened as he heard footsteps climb the steps into the guard tower. They were close now; maybe they wouldn't notice him... Maybe they'd think he was dead... That was all he could hope for at this point.

The three men armed with bows came up and looked around. They merely glanced over his body, but then one of them saw the other dead body.

"Look! The coward took off his armor and swapped it with our armor!"

The three began to fire multiple arrows into the body of their deceased cohort, laughing wickedly.

"Did he really think he could fool us?"

"We got him now!"

"Skyrim belongs to the Nords!"

"What are you even talking about, Hadvar?" the first one said looking at the third one, who looked over at him and shrugged.

Even though the corpse was properly porcupine-like, the soldiers didn't seem content. Ingmar had regained control a while ago, but... He found this entertaining. He would kill them later.

Meanwhile, Lilly rushed over to her fallen Nord comrade.

"Oh no... No, no, no, no, no... This is bad..." she muttered, trying to find someway to stop the intense bleeding. She suddenly heard voices from down the hall, and noticed footsteps coming this way. She reached for her dagger, to defend herself from-

'Right, dropped them...' she thought, almost smiling at her mistake. It was kinda funny. Her years of training, all forgotten in the blink of an eye at the sound of a cry, from this one guy. And now she was probably going to die.

The footsteps grew closer.

No. It's not over here. She had one last trick up her sleeve, one all Nords shared.

The footsteps reached the door at the far end of the room...

She inhaled deeply...

The soldiers threw open the door, at least 20 of them...

And Lilly bellowed, shouting something intimidating in some Nordic tongue. For some unexplainable reason, the soldiers turned tail and ran in the opposite direction, having seemingly forgotten about everything save for running away from Lilly's Battle Cry.

"Huh. Didn't think that would actually work," Lilly thought aloud as she looked at the fleeing soldiers. "I'll have to take care of them later. What matters now is that I get you to safety," Lilly said, moving her gaze towards Odmi.

She gripped him by the shoulders (which elicited a sharp cry of pain from Odmi) and begun dragging him out of the fort (see also: torture).

She kicked open the door, and began the task of dragging him across the snow-laden ground.

'Weird... There wasn't any snow out here earlier...' Lilly thought, then shook her head, dispelling any thoughts except for getting Odmi to safety.

She dragged him to the spot where she was cleaning her daggers earlier. She propped him up against a rock and reached into her pouch, pulling out a medium-sized phial with a red liquid in it.

Odmi stared up at her and asked, "Are you an angel?"

Lilly smiled and said, "No, but I guess I'm close. Open your mouth," she instructed, and Odmi somehow found the strength to comply.

"Here, take this," she said, pouring the Healing Potion into his mouth. It left a sweet taste in his mouth, and left him feeling oddly... Tingly. Not quite numb, no... He could still feel things; they just felt as if they were numb.

He looked down at his arm. Big mistake.

He saw a gaping hole where his shoulder was, the entire arm hanging on by a few muscles and a thin stretch of skin. He could see the tendons and nerve endings trying to reattach themselves, in vain. Indeed, no potion could heal this wound, and Lilly noticed this.

Biting her lower lip, she silently weighed her options. She looked around in thought, and saw something odd happening at the guard tower. She couldn't quite make it out, but it looked like there were. Some people standing up there, doing... Something. She couldn't really see. But that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was healing Odmi, by any means necessary.

"I'm going to try something, but you have to promise me that you won't freak out, and that you won't tell Heimvar. Okay?" Lilly said, coming to a decision. Odmi, however, was still staring at his arm, too struck to respond.

Lilly took the initiative from here and opened her palms. A yellow aura enveloped them, and she moved her palms together, forming an orb. Quickly, she thrust her palms out in front of her, enveloping Odmi with the glow.

The effects were immediate. The hole in Odmi's arm began... Stitching itself up? Words couldn't really describe it any better than that. The tendons reattached, and skin began forming over the hole. Odmi was, of course, surprised. For one thing, he could hear (and see) his bones reforming and snapping, his muscles growing, but he could not feel it at all. Secondly, his love was a healer! This was very rare, especially for a Stormcloak, even Odmi knew that. Why she didn't want anyone to know, or why she thought he'd freak out was beyond him. X had healed him on multiple occasions (though not on a wound this size, of course), and it wasn't that big a deal.

But, he was too weak to think right now. He felt faint; all he wanted to do was rest.

He felt his eyes close, and the last thing he saw was Lilly (who, in Odmi's blood-depraved mind, looked truly like an angel bathed in white) open another bottle of potion, this time smaller. She said something, but it fell on deaf ears. Odmi was out for the count.

Meanwhile, on the guard tower, the soldiers seemed content with sticking literally every arrow they had into the already dead soldier (while leaving Ingmar entirely untouched). They sheathed their bows and began to leave the tower. Ingmar stood up, grabbed a bolt, and, using it like a spear, stabbed one of the soldiers in the back of his head. This alerted the other two, who began to unsheathe their bows. Ingmar quickly pulled his bolt out and stabbed the next man in the gut, paralyzing him. The last man had nocked his arrow and was taking aim when Ingmar flung his bolt at him, hitting him dead center in the forehead. The man fell over, dead. Ingmar walked over to the second man, who was still paralyzed (but still very much alive) and took away his bow. Ingmar then lifted the soldier over his shoulder, and dumped him off of the tower head first. The impact resulted in a satisfying *splat* as the man's head exploded on the ground.

Ingmar then noticed Lilly on the ground, and she was apparently tending to... Was that magic?

This was new. He had no idea she knew any kind of spells, but it didn't make sense. 'Magic is for the weak like the elves, but she's not a weak woman,' he thought, and he began to gather up his arrows, since all targets outside were dead. His job was done, and he just had to wait for someone to come get him.

Lilly, too, was nearly done. She just had to administer this... Oh no.

Odmi had fallen asleep. This wasn't supposed to happen... Oh well. He'd just wake up in the morning with a really big scar and a throbbing pain in his shoulder. 'Probably should have given him it sooner, but... Oh well," she said aloud. She should go find Heimvar, tell him to go clear out the inside while she tended to Odmi. She would tell Ingmar... But, she didn't like him. She was sure he wouldn't do anything about it, saying he didn't need to take orders from a woman. Just the thought of him made her blood boil. She made sure she picked up her daggers this time and, in this newfound rage, she went off to find Heimvar.

She didn't need to travel far, though. She found him relatively closely, standing over a bloody child. He looked incredibly downcast, as if he'd been the one who...

Realization sunk in as Lilly placed  
her hands over her mouth. She walked over to Heimvar and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault. He knew what he was signing up for."

Heimvar looked up and replied in a monotone, "Does that make it right? Does it, really?"

Lilly had no answer for this, and she merely stared downwards, then at Heimvar.

She took a deep breath, and said, "Listen, the inside of the fort needs to be cleaned out, so..."

"I suppose that's all I'm good for. I'll take care of it," came the reply. With that, Heimvar drew his sword, still bloody, and charged towards the door, though at a slower pace than usual.

It tore at Lilly to see Heimvar like this. It really did, but there wasn't much she could do at this moment. He got like this in near every battle, and who could blame him?

'He's been through so much... His conscious is probably catching up to him,' she thought. She shook her head trying to dispel these thoughts and returned to tend to Odmi.

When she returned to Odmi's body, she saw that he was still fast asleep. He seemed kinda... Cute, almost, in a naive sort of way. The way he snuck in, and tried to block that spell without a shield... Looking back, it was hard not to chuckle. And the way he was always talking to himself, and glazing over... Cute.

'Maybe I'll try to get to know him...' she thought. Just then, she heard footsteps coming this way.

She drew both daggers and assumed a battle stance, and turned to face the intruder...

It was Ingmar.

"Gods, Ingmar. I thought I told you to not sneak up on me like that. I almost killed you," she said, and thought 'Maybe I should... It'd shut him up...'

Ingmar just laughed from behind his mask a metallic laugh.

"I know, I just forgot. Anyway, what happened to him?" he questioned with his thick accent, which in turn was accented by his mask.

"He got hit by an Ice Spell," was all that Lilly said in reply. She pretended to be busy with caring for Odmi so she didn't have to speak with-

"You don' need to administer any more care. 'E's alright now," Ingmar said, arms crossed.

"Wha-... What do you know about medical care?"

"More 'a you give me credit fer, I promise you."

"But... How?"

'You get injured enough like me, you learn a few things' he thought, but thought against it, instead saying, "I jus' do. Now, yer done with him, and ya don' need to give him anyt'ing else, else you do more harm 'an good."

"O-okay..." Lilly replied, taken off guard by Ingmar's sudden influx in intelligence.

'I can't believe I'm saying this, but... I think I might hate him less.' Lilly thought.

"So, yer a healer, eh? Thought only the elves did that..."

"Wha- Oh, you must've seen me from the guard tower. And what do you mean, 'only the elves'?"

"I mean, only the weak."

'Aaaand... I hate him again.'

"Look, just promise you won't say anything to Heimvar. I don't want him stressing out anymore than he needs to be," Lilly said, taking a sudden hostile tone.

Ingmar, noticing this, replied, "Eh, sure, Lils."

"I thought I told you not to call me that. It sounds too much like Nils, from Candlehearth Hall. My name is Lilly, okay?" Lilly said, somehow angrier.

Ingmar, sensing the increased tension, replied, "O-okay Lil... ly."

With that, both parties decided to shut up until Heimvar returned.

From inside the fortress, Heimvar was searching for the last soldier. He hadalready maimed the others, but he knew, somehow, that there was one left. He searched high and low for him, but to no avail.

Finally, in a cupboard, hefound him, cowering. Without even thinking, Heimvar thrust his sword inwards, stabbing the soldier indiscriminately. After multiple stabbings to be sure,Heimvar sheathed his sword, and, without even looking at what was sure to be another child-soldier, judging by the ease with which his sword slid in andout of him, he closed the cupboard and started towards the main gate.

He passed by the wizard at the front entrance, the one Odmi had "killed". Heimvarpicked up the old man with ease, flipped him over, and pulled out Odmi's sword. He'd be sure to return it to its rightful owner when they returned to camp.

He opened the door to exit the fort. His heart was heavy, as was his mind, with the thoughts of those he'd personally killed today. Usually, the higher ups sent more than four people to take a fort, but this time... It was different. For whatever reason. This time, he had ended up killing far more people than he usually did. On most battles, he could keep his wits about him without becoming depressed, but this time, due to the sheer quantity of deathsdealt by him, he couldn't help but become more depressed than ever.

He sighed, hoping it would pass after a round of mead back at the camp. He ran to join the rest of his squad.

He arrived at the front gate, and began to say something, but he soon noticed the tense silence and decided to keep his mouth shut. It was going to be a long walk home.

* * *

AN: And that concludes the last chapter of the first fight. How'd you like it? It was longer than I wanted it to be, but I like the finished product.

Now, you might be wondering, "WTF was up with Hunter?!" Well, if you were confused, thank Licorice Echidna, who mentioned a romance for "Mr. Silent", as he was called, and I simply couldn't resist.

Now, for srs bsns. My school year has started, so you'll be seeing (probably) significantly less updates on this story (though, with the already erratic uploading schedule, you probably won't notice a thing).

So, yeah. Long chapter, long AN. Yeeeeeeaaah... Signing off for probably a while,  
-LiE


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Hello once again audience! This chapter took me four months to plan out, because... Well, I've been writing a battle the last three chapters. And, I mean, that's great and all, but if a movie has nothing but explosions, you'll end up with a Michael Bay movie. Also, I realize I took a few... Well, a few liberties with the Racial Powers, but... Hey. I think it was interesting. What about you guys? Well, without further adieu, let's just jump in here...

* * *

Chapter 9: Dogs of War

* * *

The Bosmer hung back behind the rest of the group, his head hung and his face looking downcast. His fine feathered friend flew fast, flying forward. He, being a hawk, picked up on his owner's sadness, but, being a hawk, did nothing about it.

The Imperial and the Hybrid took the lead, chatting nonchalently. Luca was still carrying the Orc, who had, by now, woken up. But, he figured, a free ride was a free ride. Also, he was still kind of sore from his little expenditure earlier. In fact, he actually couldn't move. Sure, he could look around, but it actually hurt to move his eyelids. His eyelids! That's not normal.

In any case, the squad progressed further.

"No, you can't. I've known you for years now. I think I know what you can and cannot do," Luca said to X, hoisting Pigg to a better position on her back.

"And I've known me for more years, and I say I can!" X fired back to his wife, raising his right hand. "What about you Hu-" he began, quickly realizing that the Wood Elf had no interest in speaking right now. He looked back at his wife, and began talking again. "Like I said, I know I can!"

"No, no one can. Not even a court wizard could shoot down a hawk from this distance."

"20 Septims says I can!" X said indignantly.

"Fine. Why not. I'll match that."

"Okay, okay, okay...There! Right there! You see it?" X said, pointing upwards with two fingers, summoning up a Lightning Bolt spell.

"Yes, dear. I see it," Luca said with a sigh.

"Now, watch this!" X shouted, letting loose a thin Lightning Bolt with pinpoint accuracy. The bolt extended from his fingertips at intense speed, hitting the object in the sky. "Nailed it!"

Luca was silent for a moment, then said, "Huh. Guess I was wrong. Here ya go, I guess. Damn... Are you sure you hit it?" she said, still in disbelief.

"Of course I did! See? It's falling now!"

"Oh, yeah, now I see it. He wasn't that high up, was he...? Hey, have you seen Icarus? I haven't heard from him in a while..." Luca asked, looking around. Hunter looked up now at this statement.

"Yeah, he's... Oh shit, where is he? He was just here a second ago..."

The hawk began falling faster...

"Ohshitohshitohshit..." X repeated frantically.

The hawk began to spin and fell faster...

"Oh Gods, I think you... Oh, there he is," Luca said, pointing off in front of her. Icarus was flying around in a circle, waiting for them to catch up.

"Oh. Oh, I see it now," X said, calming down considerably now. He then looked up at the hawk. "Shouldn't it have hit the ground by now?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing..." Luca said, now looking up as well.

The hawk didn't stop falling though. It kept coming down, faster and faster and faster, and it got bigger and bigger and bigger... By now, Hunter was also watching this thing, transfixed.

"OH GODS, WHAT IS THAT THING?" Luca screamed as the thing that was hurtling towards them became more and more clearly un-hawklike.

It began to appear scaly, and large, and scalier, and larger, and scalier, and larger...

"I think..." X began, then shouted, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

The trio dove back out of harm's way, and as they landed, a monstrous thud sounded behind them.

Behind them, in the road...

Lay a dragon.

"What in Oblivion...?" Hunter muttered, and the trio started walking towards it. However, as soon as they got within 15 feet of it, it began to glow.

"What's happening now?" X asked his wife.

"I'm... Not sure..."came the reply.

Its scales began to turn to flame, and the three recoiled in shock. These flames lit up the early morning, and they turned into a rainbow, which then streamed off towards the right.

"What the hell?" came a shout from over a hill in the general direction.

From over that hill, there came a man, dressed in a hood, cowl, and caped body armor, black as night itself. He carried a large ornate bow on his back, which in turn was also black as night. Behind this man, a dozen doves flew out in all directions. Behind this flock of doves, a double rainbow shone in the night air.

"Whoa.. That's awesome..." X whispered in awe of the man in front of him.

The flock of doves then swooped down towards the man, gripped him by the shoulders and helmet, and lifted him off the ground, no easy task for the small birds, seeing as he was a full grown man. Alas, they did pick him up, and they flew him to where the dragon carcass lay. The man landed, kneeled by the skeletal wyvern, and began sifting through it.

"So, who's the one who shot this one down?" he asked without lifting his head from his work. He begins pulling the ribs from the corpse.

"Uhhh... That'd be me," X said, raising his gloved hand. "Who... Who are you?"

"Me? My name's Prisoner."

"Prisoner?" X repeated.

"Sounds like your parents had pretty high hopes for you," Luca added with a chuckle. X also laughed, but Hunter, with his hunter's senses, was more intent on tracking the doves, itching to put an arrow in each one, like the old days."Oh really?" Prisoner said now looking up. He turned to face them as he continued, "Well, I guess they'd be proud. Seeing as I'm the GODSDAMN DRAGONBORN." As he said this, he threw his arms into the air, releasing another dozen doves from seemingly nowhere. After standing still for a moment, he turned around and kneeled again, and started sifting through the dragon carcass again. This time, he reached into the eye socket, and pulled out 300 Septims.

"Wait... W-what?" Luca stammered, thinking she didn't hear right.

With a sigh, Prisoner stood up and faced them again. He faced his head up to the sky, and pulled his cowl down to reveal clean-shaven, snow-white skin. He turned his head up to the clouds, and inhaled deeply.

"Fuuuuuuuus..."

"Oh shi-"

"RODAH!" Prisoner bellowed, sending a blue pulsating shock wave out from his mouth. Said shock wave, however, sent a cacophony of recently released doves to the ground, dead upon impact. Hunter could no longer contain himself, and began skinning the birds, putting the meat and bones into his pouch.

Prisoner pulled up his cowl, and went back to his work. He pulled out a single scale (somehow), and stood again.

"Now. Would you happen to know the way to Windhelm?"

"Ummm... Yes, I think it's just North. Follow the road, and you should get there in a day or two," X replied, surprisingly calm. "Just don't stray from the path much. "

"Thanks. Appreciate it," Prisoner said, and he turned to head off in Windhelm's direction.

"Wait!" Luca shouted, finally speaking up again after Prisoner's little... Performance, causing Prisoner to stop. "Why are you going to Windhelm? You're not going to join up with... Them, are you?"

"What? Oh, of course not. I'm not joining either side of this," Prisoner said with a laugh, scoffing at the very notion. "Don't you realize what you're doing?"

"What do you mean?" X asked, a slightly puzzled look on his face.

"You really don't get it, do you?" Prisoner said, turning to face them. "Don't you know, that as long as you keep fighting, there will never be a stop to the bloodshed? And don't give me that bullshit philosophy that the only way to world peace is world domination. Then you'll be sounding like the Thalmor. It has some merit, but only in theory. By nature, humanoids are malevolent creatures. We might have a few differences, like places of origin, or political views, but that should never come to bloodshed. Unfortunately, our nature doesn't allow this. Instead, our nature dictates that we must continue petty power struggles. For what? For land boundaries? For gold? Because another race, gods forbid, worship another set of deities? If we ever want to create peace, true, everlasting peace, we must change our nature. Unlike you all, I'm going to do something that might make a difference. I'm going to take this axe from Jarl Balgruff to Jarl Ulfric, to try to make peace. So, if you'll excuse me..." he said, and turned on his heels. He began walking off towards Windhelm.

"Wait," X said, stopping Prisoner in his tracks. "You preach and preach about going against our nature, but you are a Listener of the Dark Brotherhood," he continued, which drew out a surprised gasp from Luca, a nonchalant glance up from Hunter, an unnoticeable widening of the eyes from Pigg, and a "How did you know that?" from Prisoner. "Well, I only had a hunch,but thanks for confirming it. Anyway, you are the Listener, and you are telling us this? You?"

"That's a good point. A very good point. But, in the Brotherhood, we do not kill at random. We do not kill for the sake of land. And I at least do not kill for gold. We at the Brotherhood kill for a purpose, unlike you dogs of war. We kill because some people must be killed. We however, do not commit mass killings for the want of politicians; we commit single killings for the want of the individual. We kill for those who have been wronged, and deserve the ultimate retribution. That, is a much better reason than killing in any war. Now, may I?" Prisoner concluded.

X, impressed by this thoughtful answer, replied, "Of course. I'm sorry to have wasted your time."

"Thank you. Honestly, it was a pleasure, mister...?"

"X. My name is X, that's my wife Luca, she's carrying Pigg, and that guy in the back is Hunter.""It was a pleasure debating with you, as short-lived as it was," Prisoner said, and with that, he headed off towards Windhelm.

"Well, now that that's through, can we head out now? I think I see our camp..." Luca said.

"Hold up a sec. There's something I've always wanted to do." X said, summoning a purplish swirl in his left hand.

"Honey... What are you doing?" Luca asked, staring at him with a mix of fear and intrigue.

"I've always wanted a pet dragon," he said, taking aim. "I think I'll name him Spike."

"NO, X!" Luca yelled, but it was too late. X had released the spell in the direction of the dragon corpse. Luca was well read, she new about tampering with the dead, she knew what befell those who played Divine. Whatever monstrosity arose from this, it was going to be big, angry, and-

Suddenly, the corpse took off in the opposite direction, hurled by some unseen force with the force of a whirlwind. A hush befell the trio, as even Hunter looked up from his busy work to look at the draconic skeleton soaring into the sky towards the now rising sun. The dragon looked like it was flying directly into the sun. It looked like something out of a picture book, or at least, a very morbid picture book. For vampires. Or something like that.

"...Huh." X said after a while. "Well, now we know. Let's go, shall we?" And with that, he began walking calmly towards the camp with hands behind his head and whistling "The Dragonborn Comes", with three shocked comrades and a thoroughly oblivious hawk in tow.

* * *

The three, joined by the dragged fourth, began the long walk back to their camp. Based on the amount of time it took them to get here, minus the amount of the shortcuts shaved off (they couldn't very well take the same path down dangerous paths, with Odmi in his condition), and add on the extra time put on because they had to carry Odmi, and they should arrive at home base at sunrise. This, of course, raised complaint from Ingmar.

"But, whyyy..." he moaned."Why can't we just take the shortcuts? Why do we have to follow the paaaths?"

Lilly replied surprisingly calmly, as well as in a monotone, "Because it's too dangerous to go those ways."

"Well, why don't we just leave h-"

Lilly stopped Ingmar with a single glare, and he just about shut his mouth. Or, at least, everyone assumed he did, seeing as his face was thoroughly hidden. Or, at least, Lilly and Heimvar assumed, as Odmi wasn't exactly conscious. Or, at least, Lilly assumed, as Heimvar was too busy feeling remorseful, melancholy, and downright pitiful to assume anything. Or, at least, no one assumed anything, because Lilly was too worried about Odmi and annoyed with Ingmar to care. So, in all, you, the reader, just wasted about 30 seconds or so reading this paragraph about nothing. And, by the way, Ingmar's mouth remained open, as he had a lot of trouble breathing through his nose because of... Paternal issues. (Heh.)

So, Lilly was thinking about Odmi, mostly about how stupid it was, what he did. I mean, for one thing, what idiot leaves the armory without a shield? For another, why would someone try to block without a shield? Lastly, why would anyone try to block a spell with a shield? Only the legendary shield Spellbreaker could even possibly hope to deflect any damage. Though, to be honest, the shield shouldn't be any use against regular attacks, seeing as it curves inwards, instead of curving outwards so blows slide off. Oh well.

Other than his idiocy, there was another thing that Lilly was thinking about; how attractive she thought scars were. Now, this was puzzling her. She had never really given the notion any thought, and that it would pop up now was... Oh. Right. Odmi would be getting a scar from falling asleep to soon before the healing was complete...

'No. No, I should not be thinking this. Not about a fellow soldier,' she scolded herself. 'That could never go well. Eventually, one of us will be killed in battle, and the other probably wouldn't be able to handle it.'

Internally, she sighed. She, as an experienced female, knew that... Well, the heart wants what the heart wants. She... She couldn't quite place the metaphorical finger on it, but something about Odmi made her feel... Not quite happy... Actually, happy is about the closest word she could ghetto describing the feeling.

So, he made her feel happy, but why? She, again, couldn't quite put her finger on it, but that didn't stop her from trying to figure it out.

'Hmmm... Maybe it's because he's... Smart? No, not that, he hasn't really shown anything like that... Is he... Cute? No, I don't want to think I'm that shallow, though it does play a factor, obviously... Maybe, it's that he makes me feel safe? S'good a reason as any... Ugh, maybe it's a combination of it all? Why is this so confusing? Why is it so hard to pin down a single reason? WHY CAN'T I JUST ACCEPT IT.' Lilly pondered for a while, never stopping the walking. When she left her train of thought, night had already long since fallen. She gazed upwards towards the stars and the twin moons, when she realized that they all must have been walking in silence for a few hours now. She also realized that either the other two have left her behind (unlikely), or she had pulled in front of them (likely, as she walked at a faster pace when she thought).

In an attempt to break what was most likely the most awkward silence in existence, she spoke up.

"So... What's going on back there guys?"

Two sharp intakes of breath and an "Ah! Oh, you scared me, Lils," supplied a response from a masked man.

"I thought I told you..."

Realizing his misstep, he corrected himself quickly. "Oh, sorry, I mean, Lilly. Startled me."

"Right, Lillith. Up until now, we were having a surprisingly civilized conversation about mead," Heimvar said, supplying his own response. "After we had agreed that Honningbrew mead was the best commercial mead, while the best mead overall was the Juniper Berry mead from Helgen, we had

stopped talking. And that's when you started talking again."

"So, you were talking about mead for hours?"

"It's been that long? Where does the time go?" Heimvar says, throwing his arm around the masked man for the first time.

This time, Ingmar spoke up. "Not just mead. Ale, too. And wine, and, and... Well, that's about all the alcohol we have here."

"Alcohol. You talked about alcohol for hours," Lilly said incredulously.

"Yes. I'm as surprised as you are," Heimvar said.

Lilly, deciding to play along, asked, "Now I'm curious. What are the best brands of the other two?"

"Well, for ale, that's an easy one: Argonian, straight from Black Marsh," Heimvar said, then followed up with, "They also, surprisingly, make the best wine. And jewelery."

"And boots," Ingmar said, laughing.

"On most days, I'd hit you for that, but I'm in a good mood," Heimvar said, then shared a laugh with the masked archer. "I never thought I'd find anything in common with this little whelp!" he said, patting Ingmar on the back.

Ingmar shot back with the reply, "And I never thought I'd be anything like this old bastard!"

The two turned their heads towards one another, and they gave incredibly serious faces (or, at least, Heimvar did). For a moment, it seemed that they would come to blows over simple insults.

Then, the two shared a hearty laugh, and they put an arm around one another's shoulder. They began walking in unison, swinging their legs out far in front of them and singing a bar song, in surprising harmony. She wasn't sure, but she thought it was Age of Oppression, from hearing it so much around the camp tavern.

"We drink to our youth,  
and to days come and gone,  
for the age of oppression  
is now nearly done!"

Lilly smiled and turned, leaving them to their fun. It wasn't likely that this would ever happen again, and she was happy it was happening at all.

Just now, she realized just how damn heavy Odmi was. She had completely forgotten that she was carrying him on her slender shoulders. In fact, the fact that she was just now noticing his weight was astounding, seeing as he must weigh at least 150 pounds. Then again, she was bad at estimation. She smiled again, and shifted his weight around, for a better balance of weight.

Just then, a lizard man jumped out of the nearby convienantly placed tree! He wore a tattered tunic and some boots that also had seen better days. He was also very scrawny and red, and in all, he looked pretty miserable.

He pulled out a common kitchen knife, and he said, "I don't want this to get bloody, please. Now, give me all your gold!"

The singing in the back did not cease, but the two stopped walking. Lilly easily grabbed the knife, and threw it on the ground, despite carrying another person."Listen, please. You don't understand. Please, just give me your gold!" the Argonian pleaded, getting more miserable as he continued talking. The singing stopped, and Lilly gave him a curious look.

"What do you mean? It seems you're trying to steal from me. I kill thieves."

A look of pure horror (which, on an Argonian, was the same expression as happiness, sadness, and all other emotions) came across his face, and he dropped to his scaly knees. He began to cry, and said, "No, please... Please, don't kill me... You don't understand..."

"Oh, don't I?" Lilly inquired. "You have five seconds. Start talking."

"Okay, okay! I got fired from the graveyard, and I'm out of food, and I have kids! I have kids, please let me live..." he sobbed, clutching at Lilly's pants.

"Whoa Just... Calm down." Lilly said, in a surprisingly sympathetic voice. "I'm not going to kill you anymore, shh, shh, it's okay..."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you..." the Argonian said, getting on his knees.

"Hey, hey, remember, I was just about to kill you."

"No, no, no, please,don't kill me!"

"I'm not going to..."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Lilly looked behind her and mouthed, 'seriously?' The two merely looked at her and shrugged.

She turned back to the Argonian, who was now kissing her shoes.

"Hey. Stop that. These are made of fur, that's disgusting."

"I'm just so sorry, and so happy, and so sorry, and-"

"Yes, yes, I understand. How's about you just sit down over there, and explain your story?"

"Oh, okay,thank you so much, I don't know ho- "the Argonian began, but Lilly quickly slapped a gloved hand over his mouth. He then began nodding vigorously, making muffled noises.

The four conscious people walked over to the side of the road and sat down. Through very little interrogation, they learned that the man's name was Damio, and that he worked as a soldier for hire, a "dog of war", as he put it, much to Heimvar's chagrin. But, he had gotten busted for "holding a bottle of Skooma for a friend", a story everyone nodded to, but no one believed. The man's eyes were red as a Skyrim sunrise, and he had obviously tried Skooma at least once. But, they decided to take pity on the man. They gave him 400 Septims (which he thanked them heartily for), and he joined in with a quick song or two with the boys (thank the gods they didn't sing any political songs; Argonians are rarely Stormcloaks), while Lilly sat by the road with Odmi's still unconscious body.

Or, at least, she thought he was unconscious. In reality, he had awoken hours prior. But, the sound of her mumbling to herself while she thought was... Beautiful, even though he couldn't make out anything she said. He had tried to say something when she was mumbling, but just as he tried, she began talking to the others. Since then it's been one amazing instance after another, so he never found time to interrupt. When she sat him down, he figured now would be a perfect time to say something. But, she put her hand on his, and he lost himself. They sat and watched the sunrise.

"You know, Odmi... I don't know about you sometimes..."

"You and me both, Lilly," Odmi replied nonchalently. This caused Lilly to jump and pull her hand away, which caused Odmi great sadness.

"Gak! How long have you been awake?!"

"Oh, about an hour now. I woke up a bit before those two started singing," he replied, and tried pointing a thumb in the direction of the two fellow soldiers. However, raising his right arm caused him great pain,causing him to wince. Lilly immediately rushed a hand to his shoulder, and said, "Take it easy there. A few hours ago, there was a hole there."

Odmi nodded, and turned back to the sunset, and the two sat in relative silence for a moment.

"You know what'd be fun?"

The sudden question from Lilly caused as light jump from Odmi, but he responded, nonetheless, "What?"

"If we pretended you didn't wake up, at least until we got to camp. Which, coincidentally, is right around that bend. See? I can see Lake Illinalta!"

Indeed, the camp was very nearby, and they could see the smoke from the fires.

The singing stopped, and Lilly turned her head to see Heimvar and Ingmar waving Damio away as he walked back to Falkreath. Lilly hoisted Odmi up onto her shoulders in a fireman's carry, which does not have a name in Tamriel, as there are no firemen.

"Did sleeping beauty ever wake up?" Heimvar asked once Damio left.

Suppressing a giggle, Lilly replied, "No, he hasn't."

"Oh. Well, I'm getting a little worried about him."

"I'll be sure to tell him that."

With that, she hoisted him up, and started towards camp yet again.

* * *

AN: Hmmm... Well, this took longer than I thought it would... Oh well. Hopefully, it's up to par.

The usual apologies go here. This took a long time, but... Yeah. I'm lazy as fuck.

Peace!


	10. Chapter 10

AN: He-llo everybody! Sorry the chapter took as long as it did (though it really didn't take so long, at least compared to the last one), but I had a teensy bit of writer's block. S'gone now, but still. Enjoy! Also, I had editors, but I have subsequently cut them out. This chapter was ready in February, sooo… Yeah.

* * *

Chapter 10: Where Have You Been?

* * *

Something was wrong. Very wrong. There were moans coming from the camp, moans and groans.

'What happened?' Pigg thought as he was flung off of Luca's shoulders, and she began running along with X (who apparently forgot he could teleport) and Hunter towards the camp.

'Oh well...' he thought. 'Guess the rides over. Can't really stay here, though...'

He began to slowly rise to his feet. His bones cracked, his muscles ached, his breathing became sharp, and pain coursed through his body. But, he was a strong Orc. He could handle what felt like a shattered left shin.

He ran-limped into the camp to hear a shouting match between X and another soldier.

"What do you mean?!" X shouted. "We were busy taking a fort!"

"Yes, but why did you TAKE ALL THE HEALING POTIONS?" the currently unnamed soldier shouted back, waving his arms in the air frantically.

"Well, it was just us four, I thought we'd be better safe than sorry..." X replied. "Why does it matter? You guys weren't attacked or anything were you?"

"No, of course not! But, unless you took an arrow to the eyes, you have to be able to see that we have SICK. AND. WOUNDED. And without those POTIONS..." the soldier carried on. "We can't HEAL THEM."

"Oh, it's not like they were ever going to get healed anyway..."

"WHAT?"

"Oh, nothing. And besides, why didn't you just heal them with magick?"

The soldier sighed in annoyance. "We've been over this. You're the only one with even the slightest bit of aptitude in Restoration."

"R-right, well... Luca, dear, you wanna help me out here? Wizard in a jam."

Luca smirked and folded her arms behind her back. "No, I think you've got this. I'll just stand back and join in when it seems convenient."

"Honey! Please...""Now, Xander..." the soldier started up, but was swiftly interrupted by a "Call me X." from the wizard. "Fine, X. Because you took the potions without asking, I'm going to have to court-martial you."

"Wait, what?" X asked, shocked at this turn of events.

"Yes, court-martial."

"Are you sure you have the authority to do that, Private?" Luca said with a menacing tone.

"But sir! This man stole potions!"

"What's your point, soldier?"

"Three of our wounded DIED."

"Oh," Luca replied. "In that case, punishment is in order."

"What?! What are you saying, honey?" X said incredulously, looking at his wife.

"I'm afraid rules are rules. I'll have to fine you."

"FINE?!" the unnamed soldier shouted. "A FINE? HE HAS KILLED THREE MEN!"

"Exactly, Private, and I am dealing with that right now. Now, were any of these men named characters?"

"Uh, what? Of course they had names. Runi, Bob, and Hadvarit."

"Oh, Bob died?" X interjected. "That's too bad, he was cool."

The unnamed soldier prepared to lunge at X when he was held back by Pigg (who finally decided to limpinto action), but this didn't stop him from trying to argue.

Now, I say argue, but in actuality, he was more just foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog. He was making noises, but he wasn't really saying anything. He was, in essence, a madman. A stark raving lunatic. Obviously the life of a soldier was not for him.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the matter of your punishment," Luca stated, causing X to grimace. "First, you will be fined a total of 20 Septims. Do you object to this?"

"Uhhh..." X replied, a tad dumbstruck by the fact that the fine for committing three acts of manslaughter was 20 Septims, but murder was 1,000 Septims.

"Good. I'll be taking that..." Luca said, swiping at X's robe, somehow taking exactly the 20 Septims she had just given him a few moments prior. "... And, the matter of the rest of your punishment will be discussed in our tent."

"Our tent... What?"

"You know damn well what I mean, now come on. Semicolon close parentheses."

"Okay, I'll be right th- what? What was that at the end?"

"Oh, shut up, it's something new I'm trying. I'll show you on one of my scrolls in the tent. Now, come on, before I change my mind."

Deciding not to question it further, he gave a small yelp of happiness, and he dissapeared into thin air with the crack of a whip.

"Funny thing is..." Luca said, shaking her head and smiling. "He's probably going to be asleep by the time I get there. He's been up all night, he gets tuckered out."

The Imperial squad captain waved a small goodbye to the two elves (remember, as much as you like to forget, Orcs are an elven race), and she set off on a slow walk towards the large tent she shared with a certain small bald wizard, humming a little tune.

Pigg, who was still holding the foaming man (who was still foaming, but had fallen asleep (probably unconscious (probably dead))), released his grip, and began the agonizing (see also; shins) trek towards his barracks. He left Hunter to his own business, of which he paid little attention to. However, this story is narrated by an omniscient author-narrator, so I will of course show you exactly what the Bosmer was doing as Pigg limped his green self back to their shared tent.

In fact, he had walked over to the Quartermaster, and had politely asked for the grinding stone. And by politely asked, he clicked on it, and forced the AI to sto- oh, right. Sorry. He, er, he... Silently tapped the Quartermaster on the shoulder, and without dialogue, the man got up and went to pound on a steel workbench. Hunter however, took a seat on the grindstone, and began sharpening sticks.

Because in actuality, that's what the arrows were. Regular old sticks that he finds in the woods. Honestly, do you think he'd be able to afford real arrows? He leaves them in everyone, never bothers pulling them out.

So, he's sharpening his "arrows", and he begins to hum a little tune. He's just loud enough so that the tune escapes the camp's borders (which is an easy feet, as the grindstone is at the edge of camp). The tune is one he's known all his life, one all Wild Elves know, and he hums it whenever he's alone, or scared, or just when he feels it might do something.

The tune itself sounds very upbeat, very happy, but something about it is off putting, a tad eerie. And, for good reason. There's a darker meaning behind it. It's the Song of Rescue, the song Wild Elves hum if they need to be rescued from danger.

In any case, let us return to the characters who have interesting things going on. Pigg reached the barracks after what seemed like hours, and he immediately collapsed upon his bedroll. He was asleep before he hit the ground, the all-encompassing blackness beckoning him to slumber.

However, no sooner had his vision faded to black it seemed, he was awoken again by a bell ringing in his ear, and a voice outside his tent.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty! Camp meeting!"

His eyes, bloodshot, shot open, and he saw a dangling bell. Normally, he would've reached over and crushed the bell with his monstrous hand for disturbing his sleep, but he was too weak to do that. So, he swatted it away, causing the bell to break anyway.

He slowly stood up (no easy feat, having fallen asleep in his heavy and clunky armor), and he walkedover to the main planning tent.

He was surprised to see that there was so many people there. There had to be at least 50 soldiers in the tent, and at least 246 outside. Then again, Pigg never got no skoolin or nuthin, so he was rather bad at estimating.

He stepped inside, pushing through the small men and women (small to him, he was actually rather tall, but let's not ruin his fantasy, hm?) to get through to the desk. Luca was mid-speech, and hardly acknowledged the Orc's entrance.

"... Then, we break down the wall, and we swarm. We divide and conquer, and we take the fort in a matter of moments. That's Operation Fire Ant in a nutshell, any questions?"

"Uhhh... Yeah. Could you repeat all that?" Pigg said giving a little grin, and Luca gave him a heavy sigh, clearly not in the mood for tardiness or sarcasm.

"No. I won't. Learn to be here on time. Now, if there are no questions, we'll begin at dawn. Dismissed."

The soldiers all returned slowly to their respective barracks, leaving the four soldiers who mattered together in the tent.

"Private, nice of you to join us," Luca said coldly, in a very businesslike tone. She turned to file papers in a desk, away from the others.

"What's with the tone?" Pigg said, and Luca whipped around to face him, a look of nearly uncontrolled rage on her face. X looked utterly terrified, and Hunter... Didn't seem to care. Neither did Icarus. He just kept humming that tune, softer now, almost as if giving up hope.

"How dare you?! You have been here long enough to know your way around the camp, so you have no excuse for being late. Do you realize, you just missed what is likely the most important briefing of your life? We're moving out at dawn, whether you know what's going on or not." And with that, Luca left with a huff, and she neglected to close the tent behind her.

Pigg could see outside, and he was thoroughly confused by what he saw.

Through the tent flap, he could see what appeared to be a giant catapult on wheels. Except, this one wasn't nearly as small as any other catapult he had ever seen; no, the base alone amounted to what he saw of the gargantuan thing. Alas, he was too confused from the past event and too tired from the rest of the night to investigate it any further, nor was he willing to even ask forwhat fort they were taking this time, or why they only got a night's rest. He stumbled out of the tent, past the small fleet of trebuchets and other assorted artilleries that were being lined up for the next day's invasion, and he walk into his tent, and immediately fell asleep again.

* * *

The four (or rather, three and a half, as Odmi and Lilly were still upholding their little ruse) approached the camp, and they were greeted at first by applause and cheers, then by a rushing by the concerned men. That's to be expected if one of the soldiers you sent on a near-suicide mission comes back on the shoulders of another soldier.

"Oh Gods, is he alright?"

"Perhaps we should've sent someone else..."

"If you know any true sons and daughters of Skyrim, send them to Windhelm."

"Get him to the hospital tent!"

Lilly decided to speak up after being thoroughly swarmed, and said, "Uh... Guys? Love the enthusiasm, but he's fine. Just unconscious. We should get him to his bedroll, let him lay down."

"Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

"Yeah, just, uh, set him inside."

"I used to be an adventurer like you until I too-"

"Shut up Dave. Yeah, you better do what you feel is right, you're pretty much the medic here."

Lilly grinned and went off towards the barracks. Odmi had a lot of trouble suppressing a laugh as they walked towards the barracks, but as soon as they were out of earshot, he let out a hearty laugh.

'Wait... Why am I even laughing? This isn't that funny... It's just odd, or something...'

'Maybe you're becoming insane! Goody!'

'What? No, brain, that's stupid.'

'Well, you /are/ talking to yourself...'

'Whatever, brain, if I'm insane so are you.'

'Oh, I'm long past insane. Hehe...'

'Whatever. But, what do you think of this?'

'This? She's hot. That's what I think.'

'What? No, besides that. This situation! Why am I laughing? This isn't that funny, or entertaining... I'm just worrying the camp.'

'Oh... Well, if I were to try and put a finger on it... You're laughing because you're with her. Speaking of which, she seems to be trying to say something. Good luck, kiddo!'

"Wait, what?"

"I said," Lilly replied, her smile fading ever so slightly, "What do you want to do now? I'm sure people are waiting for us at the tavern."

"Hmmm... I'm not sure... A tavern? In town?" Odmi repeated, a slight look of confusion on his face. 'The entire platoon? In Dead Man's Drink? Nords tend to get drunk... They'd have trouble getting back... Not to mention if Falkreath hold would be taken over...' he thought, interrupted by Lilly saying...

"What? Oh, no. You're a Stormcloak. We have our own taverns in camp."

"You... What?"

"We have our own taverns. Nords tend to get drunk, and they'd have trouble getting back from town, not to mention if Falkreath were to get taken over... What's with the smile?"

Odmi was indeed wearing an odd smile, for she had read his mind. Not... Not literally, but figuratively of course. No mere mortal can read minds. I, the author, am able to because I am a ginger, and thusly have no soul, and thusly, having had never been alive, cannot die, making me not mortal, but immortal.

Paying no mind to the omniscient author they cannot hear breaking the fourth wall they don't know exists (well, maybe X), the duo begin small talking (yes, it's a verb).

"Sooo..." Lilly started. "Favorite color?"

"Black," Odmi said, and then, in response to a small smirk from Lilly, "What?"

"The politcally correct term is Redguard," Lilly said, giving a chuckle. Odmi looked over and smiled, and Lilly then said, "Besides... Black isn't a color."

"What do you mean? 'Course it's a color. What else could it be?"

"Well... It's a shade."

"... A shade."

"Yeah, there's a difference. So, pick another."

"Fine. White, then... Don't tell me that's not a color."

A small smirk.

"You're kidding."

"No! No, no... It's fine, let me show you something..." she said, and she led him out of the tent.

Outside of the tent, in the tavern tent (which, comically and logically, was the most lavish tent in the entire camp), Heimvar was raising a storm with his fellow soldiers. They were singing a song, rather loudly, badly, and to top it all off, drunkenly, though with passion. And, in the end, isn't that all that matters?

"Ugly red head rolllled aroun' on the floor!" the group finished, laughing heartily. Mead was re-poured, tankards were filled past the brim, and cheers filled the air.

"Haha!" an unnamed soldier laughed. "Heimvar, you know any others?"

A cheer went up through the tavern again, all urging Heimvar on. A few close ones patted him on the back, and everyone encouraged him.

"Well..." Heimvar said, unsure. He wasn't drunk, but still was unsure of what to do. The clarity of mind didn't help his confidence; former skald or not, he wasn't very confident in his singing skills.

"Come on, Heimvar. No one else here has your... Your..." the unnamed soldier said, and passed out, to the laughter of his peers. Heimvar picked him up and put him in a chair, and he said to his audience, "Well... You say you want a song?". The men, of course cheered, and tossed back mead.

"Does anyone have a lyre?" he roars, and from out of nowhere, someone tosses him one. Seriously, out of nowhere. No one saw the guy who did it. But, they were too drunk to care. The skald had an instrument!

He opened his mouth to sing, and...

"We drink to our youth, and to days come and gone...  
For the age of oppression is just about done."

The tavern went up in cheers, as everyone was excited to hear everyone's favorite parody. Or, was it the original? That was lost to war propaganda. Only one conscious man did not join in. It was a man in a mask, a man who had yet to take a drink, a hated man with a thick accent who watched on with envy, longing to be a part of this.

Outside, Odmi met Lilly in her tent. Oddly, she had a tent to herself. I guess being the one female in camp gives you things. She led him to a bookshelf, and she pulled out a worn, thick book, with a picture of the symbols of the Nine Divines in a circle, with stars adorning the rest of the cover. She thumbed through the book, and found a triangle with a rainbow coming through it. It looked very foreign to Odmi, who had no schooling whatsoever, and had never seen this image before.

"See? Look at this... It shows the entire color spectrum, from red to violet."

"Sooo... These are all the colors in the universe?"

"Yep!" she chirped.

"Neat."

"Just... Just neat? But... When I learned this... I was amazed."

"Well, it's neat. I'm not much for... Science."

"Why not?"

"Well... Never got into it."

And then it dawned on the battle maiden.

"Well... It's probably because you were never properly schooled," she said, and this drew a surprised look from Odmi, but he didn't object. It was true. "Granted, neither was I, but I taught myself. And..." she added, biting her lower lip in a way that he found as just so godsdamned cute, "And... I could teach you."

He looked at her, and he slowly nodded. Hewasn't sure, honestly, if he wanted to learn; he lived his entire life up until now, blissfully ignorant of the way the world works, and... Huh. It seems he can't think of any bad sides to learning from her. He learns, and he gets to spend time with the one he loves, get to know her better.

"So... First lesson. The light spectrum."

Lilly began to thumb through the pages, until she found a name: ROY G. BIV.

"This is my pal, Roy. Roy G. Biv. He'll teach you all the visible colors."

Odmi look down at the book, disbelief in his eyes. There was no man here, nay, not a man at all! It was instead a collection of letters, each one a different color. 'Insanity!', he thought.

Lilly, recognizing the shock in his eyes, for she had the same feeling when she first read about this, said, "I know what you're thinking, this is insane. Just, look at the letters."

With a gloved finger, she traced the letters, and said, "R for red, O for orange, and Y for yellow. Roy. The G is for green, and that's where it is because... Well, you try putting a G in the middle of someone's name," she said, giving a smile that did not wear off on the face of Odmi, who wore a look of confusion. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that everything he saw could be classified into one of these few colors.

"Anyhoo," Lilly continued, "B is for blue, I is for indigo, and V isfor violet." She clapped her hands together and looked back at Odmi. "So, any questions?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"Well... Are you going to tell me what it is?"

"N-no... It'll make me feel stupid."

"I'm sure it won't. And, how can you learn if you never ask questions?"

The battle maiden had a point there, or so Odmi thought.

"Well... What's your favorite color?"

Lilly gave a small laugh, and began, "Well, that would of course b-"

Suddenly, a gong could beheard from the tent in the center of camp.

"W-what's that?" Odmi asked when he noticed the look of terror on Lilly's face.

"Oh shit... Get out, now!""What? Why?"

"Just get out and follow me!" Lilly shouted, and she got up, running out of the tent. Odmi tried to follow, but Lilly, being more lightweight and having more stamina, outran him. He, however, knew the way to the main tent, somewhat. It took him a few minutes to find it, and by the time he got to the tent, the meeting was already wrapping up. He opened the flap to the tent, and entered to an ongoing conversation.

"Wassat? Where are we goin'?" a drunken soldier said to Heimvar, who looked surprisingly sober, having had 7 tankards of mead.

"Okay, someone will explain it to you when we leave tomorrow. Someone get Dave back to his tent, alright?"

Some unnamed soldier came by him and picked him up by the shoulders and said, "Yeah, yeah Dave...Skyrim, Nords, all that... Come on..."

Odmi tried walking up to Lilly to find out what was happening, but by the time he got to her, he heard Heimvar say, "Dismissed", and everyone began filing out.

"Hey, where ya been?" Lilly said to Odmi, a small smile on her face. She had sprinted up to the tent, soshe could share her info with the rest of the camp, and she lost him on the way.

"Well... I... Nevermind. So, back to our lesson?"

"Yeah, but first...There's something I want to get for us. I know you missed out on drinking, and I have some wine buried outside camp. We can bring it back to my tent, drink a bit, continue learning."

"What kind of wine?" Odmi replied with a smile.

"Raspberry Knoll," she replied, "Come on, I'll show you where."

She withdrew a spade and took his hand. She walked quickly (which was a slow jog for Odmi), and eventually, they reached a small tree by a broken dock. She beganto dig, and eventually they hit glass. She dug out two bottles of the pink liquid, and giggling, they ran back to her tent.

On their way back, out of the corner of his eye, Odmi saw the Tavern tent. He thought he saw one more person sitting at the bar, but he couldn't be sure. The duo entered the tent, and they paid it no mind. Lilly produced two wine glasses, rare in Skyrim. Then again, being daughter to chief advisor to Ulfric Stormcloak had some advantages.

"Purple, by the way."

"What?" Odmi asked, looking at the girl.

"My favorite color. Purple." She then explained, "What you get if you mix redand blue."

"Ah. I feel that should be poetic, in a way."

"Oh well. Back to the lesson," she said, taking a small sip of the wine.

Meanwhile, at the tent, Ingmar, checking that no one was around, removed his mask, and began to drink deeply, hoping to stave off the nightmares another night with alcohol.

* * *

AN: Well, here she is. This was... I'ma level with you, most of this was filler. BUT! Still important to the story. I like writing this, especially the end. Threw in a reference to one of my favorite author's second most acclaimed novel, try to spot it! Until next time, seeya!


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